Lakers lose to lowly Kings, say poor shooting to blame

 The Texans held the Steelers' offense to 175 yards Monday night while sacking the future Hall of Fame quarterback four times and forcing Rodgers into two turnovers for touchdowns.

Had 50 potential assists tonight, we converted on 21 of those," Lakers coach JJ Redick said, referring to the team's internal analytics. "This has been the theme. It has been the theme. So, we just got to keep shooting, I guess."

It was the Lakers' third straight loss and seventh in their past 11 games, dropping them to 23-14 -- fifth in the Western Conference.

Before the game, Redick was asked what he had to do to motivate L.A. against a Sacramento team that came into the night with a 9-30 record -- 14th in the West.

"We don't look at any game as a walkover," Redick said.

Some pregame signs indicated otherwise.

L.A. had the NFL playoff game between the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers playing on the TV in the locker room, rather than clips from the Lakers-Kings most recent matchup Dec. 28.

And more than half of the 13 players in uniform were not on the court for the national anthem and pregame lineup introductions, leaving the bench players who were out there to mimic as if they were the starters being announced.

One of those players, Rui Hachimura, was off the injuy report after sitting out the past six games because of a right calf issue but did not play against the Kings.

Redick explained that he decided to save the 27-year-old forward for Tuesday's game against the Atlanta Hawks after he was informed Monday morning that Hachimura would be available for only one leg of L.A.'s back-to-back.

"[And] he was on a severe minutes restriction so it made sense to play him tomorrow," Redick said. "We had already put in the injury report."

But the 41-year-old James and Luka Doncic both playing showed a certain level of intent by the Lakers.

They combined to score L.A.'s first eight points, causing Sacramento to call timeout after the Lakers went up 8-2 in the first 2:09 of the first quarter.

It just turned from there, with the Lakers shooting 2-for-11 from 3 in the opening quarter and losing the lead heading into the second.