LOS ANGELES
Sacramento Kings rookie Nique Clifford had one of those NBA coming-of-age experiences Sunday courtesy of Luka Doncic, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Clifford had one of his best games of the season, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the onslaught as the Lakers put a whooping on a Kings team that has leaned heavily into a youth movement in recent weeks.
Doncic put up 28 points, five rebounds and nine assists to lead the Lakers to a 128-104 victory before a crowd of 18,272 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
James scored 24 points for the Lakers (36-24), who won on the second night of a back-to-back after beating the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Clifford, 24, said it’s still a surreal experience to share the floor with James, 41, who is a 22-time All-Star, four-time MVP and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
“It’s crazy,” Clifford said. “You grow up watching them. LeBron was in the league before I was born probably, so it’s crazy to play against him now, and to still be doing what he’s doing at that age is super impressive. To be on the same floor, I feel like I belong, but it’s pretty dope to be out there with guys in that category.”
Clifford had 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Kings (14-48), who had won two of three after enduring a franchise-record 16-game losing streak. Clifford went 11 of 18 from the field, 1 of 2 from 3-point range and 3 of 4 at the free-throw line, finishing four points shy of his career high three weeks after scoring 30 in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I’m just proud to see him continue to grow as a young player,” Kings coach Doug Christie said. “When you look at the things he’s able to do out there, he got downhill. He shoots the 3. He handles the basketball. He makes plays. He rebounds the basketball. I love that.
“At walkthrough today, I said, ‘Young fellas, don’t be afraid to hit somebody because that can happen when you play against guys like LeBron and guys like Luka.’ That’s great, but nobody should care. You go and you compete and you hit them just like you would hit anybody else, and actually that’s how you get your respect, but I thought he competed at a high level.”
Rookie center Maxime Raynaud had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Sacramento. Russell Westbrook had 14 points and five assists, but he went 6 of 16 from the field and 1 of 7 from 3-point range.
Westbrook returned to the starting lineup after missing Thursday’s 130-121 victory over the Dallas Mavericks due to a right thigh contusion. He went 1 of 5 from the field and 0 of 2 from 3-point range while committing three of Sacramento’s six turnovers over the first 6:42.
The Lakers scored 27 points off of Sacramento’s 20 turnovers. Raynaud had six. Westbrook had four.
Christie didn’t hesitate when asked how the game got away from the Kings so quickly.
“Turnovers,” he said. “Six turnovers in the first five minutes. You just can’t do it. You can’t survive.”
The Kings missed seven of their first 10 shots and trailed by 11 midway through the first period. The Lakers led by 20 in the first quarter and went up by 22 in the second before carrying a 64-49 advantage into the halftime break.
Sacramento cut the deficit to 10 on a basket by Westbrook early in the second half, but it wasn’t long before Los Angeles pushed the lead up to 24 points on a fallaway 3-pointer by Doncic. The Lakers led by 20 at the end of the third quarter and went up by as many as 29 in the fourth.
“Taking care of the ball was an issue for us tonight,” Clifford said. “It led to easy baskets for them, getting in transition. That’s how you build momentum, and obviously in the first quarter we let it get away and it was tough to get back.”
Up next
The Kings will return to Sacramento to open a five-game homestand against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday at Golden 1 Center.
The Suns (34-26) are seventh in the Western Conference, two games behind the Lakers for the final automatic playoff berth.
The Suns should be well rested when they come to Sacramento. They haven’t played since beating the Lakers 113-110 on Thursday and won’t play again until Tuesday.
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Jason Anderson is The Sacramento Bee’s Kings beat writer. He is a Sacramento native and a graduate of Fresno State, where he studied journalism and college basketball under the late Jerry Tarkanian.