Sacramento, CA – DeMarcus Cousins posted 23 points and 19 rebounds as Sacramento thumped the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-96, to end the season.
Los Angeles (41-25) rested its big players as the team was already guaranteed the third seed after winning the Pacific Division. The team will open the playoffs against Denver at home starting on Sunday.
Tyreke Evans had 21 points and Jason Thompson added 17 points and 10 boards for the Kings (22-44), who won two of three to end the season.
"You see some upside and hopefully we can get things going," Thompson said.
Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol all sat out, while Metta World Peace served the first of his seven-game suspension for elbowing Oklahoma City's James Harden on Sunday. Josh McRoberts scored 16 points and pulled down nine rebounds in the loss.
When asked about the Nuggets, Bryant said, "We have to control the tempo. They're going to get up and down, try to speed the game up, go to a smaller lineup and so forth. We got to do a great job controlling the pace."
The Lakers led early, but the Kings eventually pulled ahead and an 11-2 run helped the team take a 35-24 lead into the second quarter.
Los Angeles was able to keep it close with a couple of runs in the second quarter, but Sacramento always had an answer and eventually took a 56-43 lead into the halftime break.
The Kings continued to run in front in the third and kept a double-digit lead throughout. Los Angeles got to within 10 a couple of times, the last when Jordan Hill made a basket to cut the score to 75-65.
Sacramento, though, answered with the next five points and eventually took a 90-74 lead into the fourth.
The lead grew to as many as 24 points in the final frame as the Kings coasted to the finish line.
Game Notes
Sacramento won two of three from Los Angeles this season...Sacramento shot 51.1 percent, while Los Angeles made 45.1 percent of its shots.
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