The Sacramento Kings avoided a season sweep to the Los Angeles Lakers, winning for the second game in a row, led by Rudy Gay's 31 points. Rookie Ray McCallum scored a career-high 27 points in his fifth consecutive start.
It was a fun night of basketball at Sleep Train Arena Wednesday night as the Kings beat the Lakers for the first and only time this season in what was dubbed "Bollywood Night". The arena was brightly decorated with multicolored shirts, Indian music and dancing occurred throughout and Rudy Gay briefly became Shiva, destroyer of worlds.
The Lakers were able to keep the game interesting for most of the night despite their many injuries by utilizing the three point line, where they hit 12-28 threes (42.9%). In comparison, they only hit 36.7% of their two point shots. Nick Young hit 4 of 8 from beyond the arc, but was otherwise abysmal, going 6-17 overall. Los Angeles also did a good job of hitting the offensive glass with 14 offensive boards. 6 of Jordan Hill's game-high 15 rebounds came on the offensive end. Jodie Meeks' 21 points (of which almost half seemed to come from cherry picking the Kings defense) led the way for Los Angeles.
For Sacramento, it was yet another incredibly productive night for the ever improving Ray McCallum. For the 3rd consecutive game, McCallum set a career-high in points with 27 on 12-22 from the field to with 4 rebounds and 5 assists in 46 minutes of play. 17 of those points came in the first half alone. Ray was only surpassed in scoring by Rud Gay, who scored 31 points on 12-24 shooting after only scoring 4 points in the first quarter. Gay caught fire in the second half and was able to provide an answer whenever the Lakers went on runs.
DeMarcus Cousins was only able to play 21 minutes due to early foul trouble, but when he was on the court, there was no answer for him. Despite the limited action, Cousins still managed to put up 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists. If he had been able to play more, the game probably would not have been as close.
There were good signs from the supporting cast as well. Ben McLemore continued to shoot relatively well, scoring 12 points on 5-11 from the field. Travis Outlaw scored 11 points off the bench, along with 7 rebounds and 2(!) assists. Jason Thompson scored only one basket, but contributed elsewhere with 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks in 23 and a half minutes.
This game was Sacramento's last against a sub-.500 team, and with 7 games remaining, the Kings will have a chance to surpass last year's win total of 28, although it won't come easy. They'll start by looking to continue this win streak on Friday in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors.
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