LeBron James’ longevity is unparalleled, especially in professional basketball. The fact that he remains this productive on the hardwood is simply mind-blowing.
And with the Los Angeles Lakers star’s career coming to an end soon, the NBA partnered with Topps to have James wear a special 23rd season jersey patch for every game to commemorate how he’s the only player in NBA history to reach that many seasons in the association.
However, the start to James’ life with the special 23rd season jersey patch wasn’t very ideal. The Lakers ended up falling to the 14th placed-team in the West, the Sacramento Kings, 124-112, as LA couldn’t stop Sacramento from pouring on the buckets.
The Kings have been having fun on social media lately, most recently trolling Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets for imitating the lighting of the beam that Sacramento made famous during the 2022-23 season. They gave James a similar treatment, trolling him for losing on the debut of his jersey patch similar to how he lost his career debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers on the 30th of October back in 2003.
“bad day to be a jersey patch debut 🙂↔️,” the Kings’ post on their official account on X reads.
Kings pour it on against reeling Lakers defense
Luka Doncic scored 40 points through three quarters for the Lakers against the Sacramento Kings on Monday night, going 15 for 21 from the field. He had seven assists and six rebounds and had played more than 30 minutes.
But then Doncic got his left thigh wrapped.
He scored only two points in the fourth quarter, making one of four shots and missing both of his three-point attempts in the Lakers’ 124-112 loss to the hot-shooting Kings.
After the game, Doncic didn’t provide much clarity on what he might be dealing with, saying his ailment was “somewhere” in the inner thigh or groin area.
“Yeah, I was really uncertain. Before the game … I felt something,” said Doncic, who was unsure if he would play before the game. “But tomorrow, we’ll see how I wake up.”
Doncic finished with 42 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. He was two for nine from three-point range. He didn’t let the injury be an excuse for his fourth-quarter struggles.
“If I’m out there, I’ll try to go,” Doncic said. “So that’s never an excuse. I’m good.”
The Lakers were down by 20 points in the third quarter and were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way. They got to within seven points in the fourth quarter before the Kings pulled away.
They shot decently from the field, shooting 49%. But they were horrible from three-point range, making just 22% (eight for 36).
“It’s literally we can’t make a shot,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Meanwhile, the Kings shot 59% from the field and 65% from three-point range.
“Defensively, I mean, I think we played solid defense,” LeBron James said. “I mean, they made a bunch of threes. We didn’t make many, but I thought we played. We had our game plan. We executed our game plan. Tonight was just one of those cases where you didn’t make shots.”
DeMar DeRozan torched the Lakers inside, scoring 32 points on 14-for-19 shooting.
Malik Monk came off the bench and scored 26 points, going seven for nine from three-point range. Even Russell Westbrook torched the Lakers, scoring 22 points in making four of his eight three-pointers.
When the Lakers got to within 112-104, the Kings put the game away with a DeRozan jumper and three-pointers from Monk and Precious Achiuwa.
Redick pulled his starters with 1:53 left.
“We faced a hot-shooting team tonight,” Redick said.
Rui Hachimura was in uniform, but didn’t play against the Kings after missing the previous six games with right calf soreness. There’s a good chance he will see playing time against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
LeBron loves his ‘super cool’ patch
The Minnesota Timberwolves won’t have center Rudy Gobert when the team takes the court for Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Gobert was issued a one-game suspension from the NBA on Monday after he was called for a flagrant foul during the Timberwolves’ narrow 104-103 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
The NBA announced its decision Monday, explaining Gobert accrued his sixth flagrant foul point during Sunday’s game, leading to an automatic suspension.
Gobert received the penalty with 7:24 remaining in the contest. While trying to defend a Victor Wembanyama 3-pointer, Gobert did not give the Spurs’ star enough landing space on the play. He was called for a foul and eventually assessed with a flagrant, which triggered an automatic suspension.
Gobert came into the contest with five flagrant foul points on the season. Under the NBA’s flagrant foul points system, a player with at least five flagrant foul points is automatically given a suspension if they are called for a flagrant foul 1 or higher during a game.
The 33-year-old Gobert is now in a situation where he would receive an automatic suspension every time he commits another flagrant foul. If that foul is classified as a flagrant foul 1 next time, Gobert would receive a one-game ban. If he commits a flagrant foul 2, he would reach seven flagrant foul points on the season and automatically be suspended for two games.
Players who reach seven flagrant foul points in a single season are automatically assessed a two-game suspension for each additional flagrant foul, regardless of the severity of that foul.
Gobert is in the midst of yet another strong season, averaging 11 points and 11.4 rebounds over 40 games. At 26-14, the Timberwolves sit in fourth place in the Western Conference entering Tuesday’s game.
