The Los Angeles Lakers steadied their season by beating the Sacramento Kings 125-101 on Sunday, led by Luka Doncic with 34 points. LeBron James added 24 points and Nick Smith Jr.
scored 21 from the bench as the team reacted strongly to a heavy 119-96 loss to the Houston Rockets on 25 December.
That defeat to Houston finished a three-game losing run and was described as humiliating inside the locker room. Players and staff held a team meeting afterwards, during which Austin Reaves’ calf injury was confirmed. Reaves will miss several weeks, removing a key guard option from the rotation.
Doncic said the internal talks strengthened a shared leadership plan with James while Reaves recovers. Doncic explained that responsibility must start with the star duo and later include Reaves again. I think it definitely starts with us, Doncic said. And when AR is back, it’s going to be all three of us. But now, it starts with us. We need to show what we can do and if we are going to do it, we are both going to do it. The group is going to follow.
James agreed that setting standards is vital but rejected any idea of a two-player structure. I don’t want to create the narrative of [just] me and Luka, James said. It’s five guys on the floor and seven guys that come off the bench. It needs to be all of us. But it’s important that we set the tone. The response against Sacramento matched that message across the roster.
Against the Kings, James recorded the best shooting accuracy of James’ Lakers career, hitting 84.6 percent from the field. That efficiency underlined James’ continued impact as James approaches age 41 on Tuesday and moves deeper into James’ 23rd NBA season.
The win over Sacramento also highlighted headline numbers for the main contributors and James’ season averages. The figures below show Sunday’s scoring output and James’ current 2025-26 statistics for points, rebounds and assists.
| Player | Game points vs Kings | 2025-26 points per game | 2025-26 rebounds per game | 2025-26 assists per game |
|---|
Luka Doncic34—LeBron James2420.25.16.8Nick Smith Jr.21—
James reflected on longevity by recalling earlier work with Nike that framed age as a rival. [Remember] when I did the Father Time commercial thing? I’m in a battle with him. And I would like to say that I’m kicking his a**on the back nine! James said, describing the current phase of James’ career.
The Lakers moved to a 20-10 record with the victory and stay at home for their next matchup. Detroit Pistons visit on James’ birthday, which will be the third contest in a stretch of five straight games at Crypto.com Arena, giving Los Angeles a continued chance to build on renewed momentum.