After an ugly loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Lakers were able to dust themselves off and get a solid win on the road against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night.
Following the win over the Kings, head coach Luke Walton spoke to the media about his team’s performance in an impressive come-from-behind victory. Walton believes his young team has proven they are a force to be reckoned with nine games into the 2016-17 season, via Lakers Twitter account:
Luke: "Our guys have proven when they play hard & they’re engaged in what they’re doing, they’re capable of beating anyone on any night.”
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 11, 2016
The Lakers were able to erase a 19-point deficit in the first half to ultimately win the game by 10 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The Kings appeared to be in control the entire game, but let their division rivals get back into it with Lou Williams leading the way off the bench.
As usual, DeMarcus Cousins was a handful for the Lakers. The star center scored a game-high 28 points to go along with nine rebounds, four assists, and two rebounds. Cousins was nearly un-guardable in the first half and still caused Los Angeles a lot of trouble in the final two quarters, but the Lakers, as a whole, were too much to handle for the Kings once they got going.
With Walton and company now one game above .500 once again at 5-4, the storied franchise will continue their road trip with two games on the schedule away from the Staples Center. The Lakers will take on Anthony Davis’ New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday followed by a showdown with Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.