Lakers 98, Kings 95: Box Score Breakdown

The Kings came back from 17 down in the second half to make it a game. DeMarcus Cousins and Sasha Vujacic don't like looking at each other when they hold hands.

SHOOTING

The Kings shot a yucktastic 23-59 (.389) on two-pointers. Tyreke Evans went 4-12 on twos, and Cousins went 3-8. Luther Head went 1-4 and Omri Casspi went 0-3. Not a good night inside the arc, though the team helped make up for it by draw plenty of fouls. (More on that below.)

Here's a breakdown of Evans' two-point shot selection. (Note: Reke didn't have a FGA in the fourth before leaving with seven minutes left, but he did shoot three free throws, one of them a tech.)

In total, he went 3-7 in the paint and had three trips to the line (seven FTAs in all). From outside the lane, he went 1-5 on two-point jumpers and 0-2 on threes.

As a team, the Kings shot 6-15 (.400) from long-range. Donte Greene (2-3), Antoine Wright (2-4) and, coughCOUGHcough, Cousins (1-2) were the big winners.

The Lakers only shot 31-70 (.443) on twos; Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom were a combined 5-19 inside the arc. Pau Gasol did well (7-15), and Shannon Brown went nuts (6-11 on twos). From three-point range, Ron Freaking Artest went 4-5 and the rest of the team went 2-9.

REBOUNDING

Both teams dominated the offensive glass. The Kings had 14 o-boards in 44 opportunities, a 32% rate. No surprise as to who did the heavy lifting there: Cousins had five in 28 minutes (estimated OReb% of 19.4) and Jason Thompson added four in 18 minutes (24%).

But the Kings struggled on the defense glass, giving up 17 offensive rebounds in 50 opportunities, a brutal 34% o-reb rate for L.A. Gasol had four, Odom had three and nine of the 13 Lakers who played had at least one. Carl Landry had seven defensive rebounds in 39 minutes, a Hawesesque 17% defensive rebound rate. Cousins' five in 28 minutes was no better (also 17%). You need more from your starting frontline against such a skilled team.

TURNOVERS

Another sloppy night for the Kings, with 18 turnovers in 97 possessions. That's about 4-5 too many. Cousins had three (all on bad passes or ball-handling mistakes) and Thompson had four (three on bad passes or ball-handling mistakes, one offensive foul). Three for Evans as well.

The Lakers also had way too many turnovers (18), with Brown leading the pack with four. The Kings came up with 10 steals, four of them by Luther Head. All four of them came in the fourth quarter. L.A. had nine turnovers in the fourth quarter alone.

FOULS

The Kings actually didn't foul much, sending the Lakers to the line just 30 times. But Sacramento did an excellent job drawing contact, with 43 FTAs of their own. Landry, Greene, Cousins, Evans and Head all did well to get to the line.

Only Cousins and Thompson (quel surprise) ran into foul trouble, but neither fouled out. With Samuel Dalembert out, foul trouble is going to play a huge role (either way) in the Kings' start.

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Add Omri Casspi's name to the T'd up list.