Kings at Lakers
Kobe Bryant doesn’t look like he’ll spend much time chasing Michael Jordan’s six championships this season, but he is staring down the Hall of Famer on the all-time scoring list. Bryant will try to draw closer to the legend when the Los Angeles Lakers host the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. Bryant, who has five NBA Championship rings to Jordan’s six, is 63 points from passing Jordan for third place on the scoring list.
Bryant’s chase is one of the few things the Lakers have going for them at the moment as they endure a three-game losing streak and losses in seven of the last nine contests. The Kings are dealing with the loss of center DeMarcus Cousins, who has been ruled out indefinitely with viral meningitis. Sacramento dropped three straight without its star but has since won two of three and got a surprise boost from rookie Nik Stauskas in a 101-92 win over Utah on Monday.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN California (Sacramento), TWC SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE KINGS (11-10): Stauskas lost most of his playing time to Ben McLemore and appeared to be moving further down in coach Michael Malone’s rotation until breaking out with season highs of 15 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes against the Jazz. The Michigan product had been held scoreless in four of the previous five games but got most of his minutes Monday at the expense of McLemore, who totaled eight points in the last two games. Rudy Gay is shouldering most of the scoring load with Cousins out of the lineup and is averaging 22.5 points in the six games Cousins has missed so far.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (5-16): Bryant is tied for the NBA lead in scoring at an average of 25.2 points but is shooting 38.9 percent and was held to 14 points on 6-of-18 shooting in a 104-87 home loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday. Los Angeles changed up its starting lineup in that contest, benching Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer in an effort to get more defense. “I thought, as the game went on, my biggest concern was what ended up happening,” Los Angeles coach Byron Scott told reporters. “We started missing shots. The more we missed, the more we got deterred from what we were thinking about doing. We start thinking about missing shots, and all of a sudden we stop playing the defense that we started off playing.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Bryant averages 26.8 points on 46.4 percent shooting in his career against the Kings.
2. Los Angeles F Jordan Hill has failed to record a double-double in any of the last three games after posting eight in the previous 10 contests.
3. Sacramento snapped a five-game skid in the series with a 107-102 home win on Apr. 2.