At the Great Western Forum, the Lakers are preparing to take on the Sacramento Kings, who are 13-18 and 10th in the West. Although their star player Mitch Richmond played the best performance of his career, averaging 25.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, he still couldn't escape the doom of the fish.

The rest of the Kings' players are really poor, in the 1990s, Sacramento had some stars, such as Webb, Lambis, but in the '93 season, Lambis was traded to the Lakers, and now he is the Lakers' chief assistant coach. Webber was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in the '95 season.

But at the moment, there is no one other than Richmond who can claim to be a good player. Mahmoud Raugh is not used to the team's point guard and struggles to perform with the Denver Nuggets. The other player who is more famous is Billy Owens, the No. 3 pick in '91 who has gradually sunk and is now completely gone, averaging just 11 points per game this season.

The Kings' coach, Garry St. Jean, has been the head coach of the Sacramento Kings since '92, but his leading performance has made the team's top brass seriously unhappy, and there are rumors that if the Kings find a suitable replacement, he may be swept away at any time.

So the Kings can win 13 wins is already a record that Richmond has worked hard to win, after all, he is not a superstar, and he can't lead a bunch of O'Neal's grandma level players to the playoffs like a superstar.

The Lakers play a game at home against the Kings on Jan. 2 and will fly to Sacramento the next day. Back to back in away games against the Kings once.

But in what was originally a game that was nine out of ten, the Lakers almost overturned.

Perhaps it was a few days without a game, and the Lakers players were not focused, and the opening first quarter was led by Richmond to a 31-23 game. The offensive problem is not big, but the leakage and eye defense of the Lakers players on the defensive end is very serious.

Maybe it's the old problem of the giant team, and after winning consecutive games, it will float all kinds of things.

The Lakers' bench continued to dig holes, and the spread continued to widen. The Lakers' bench mostly relies on projection to score, and when they lose their touch, the game is tough.

In the second quarter, the Lakers started again, and Kobe Bryant took the initiative to defend Richmond. In this way, the momentum of the Kings was contained, and the Lakers gave up floating shots from the outside and scored consecutive points in the Kings restricted area.

At halftime, the Sacramento Kings 58:49 Los Angeles Lakers. Richmond was the brightest star of the half, finishing with 16 points, three rebounds and four assists on 7-of-13 shooting.

Kobe Bryant finished with 8 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists on 3-of-9 shooting, and O'Neal finished with 13 points and 4 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting. The Lakers' offense is still on the line, and in the face of the Kings' loose defense, it is not difficult to score.

In the third quarter, the Lakers began to chase points, and Kobe, who was a little dumb in the first half, adjusted his crosshairs. Kobe Bryant is not a man who collapses to the end, even if he doesn't feel good, he chooses to go inside and score points with free throws.

Richmond has a dumb fire, Kobe Bryant's defense is very tight, even if he can use his strength to press Kobe Bryant to break through the basket, but he still has to face Campbell and O'Neal's supplemental defense.

Bryant's defensive strategy was to press the defensive shot, rush to the basket and let Campbell and O'Neal help defend.

Kobe's defense made it impossible for him to get a good shot in the first place, and his offense could only become a dry pull in the face of Kobe's defense, or a strong hit to multiple defenders under the basket.

Of course, this kind of efficiency is not as good as the Lakers with Kobe and O'Neal, after Kobe Bryant opened, the king decisively chose to pack, and O'Neal came to the end at this time. The inside line had plenty of room to make moves and hit a basket.

The score kept coming back, and Horry hit a buzzer-beating shot to tie the score at the end of the third quarter.

At the end of the third quarter, the Sacramento Kings 72:72 Los Angeles Lakers.

At this time, the balance of victory has shifted in favor of the Lakers, and Richmond has experienced a lot of such games this season, as an absolute single-core, he often loses even if he collapses the opposing team in the opening game. Physically limited and tactically impacted, Richmond is not the kind of player who can change his life.

Bryant led the Lakers bench to play a few minutes early in the fourth quarter, and then O'Neal came on with seven minutes left in the game, which became the last grass that crushed the camel.

The physical O'Neal was invincible in the face of the third-rate inside, and he scored 7 points in a row in a short period of time to close the game.

At the end of the court, this somewhat turbulent game was still the Lakers' deep heritage and had the last laugh.

Sacramento Kings 85:93 Los Angeles Lakers.

Richmond's defensive efficiency against Kobe Bryant began to deteriorate in the second half, and he finished with 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists on 11-of-25 shooting in the normal game, and without a single assist in the second half, Kobe completely cut off Richmond's connection with his teammates.

Kobe Bryant finished with 21 points, 2 rebounds and 8 assists on 9-of-17 shooting. He didn't have a good shooting touch, but he continued to play efficiently with his breakthroughs and defense.

O'Neal is the best player of the game, O'Neal, who just won the league's player of the month in December, scored 31 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in this game.

The defensive pressure faced by Kobe Bryant will be a notch higher than that of '96!

The Lakers players briefly celebrated and then went home to rest. They need to board a flight to Sacramento early the next morning.

The second game with the Kings was even easier, and a single-core team like the Kings couldn't turn over as long as they could lock up Richmond.

In this game, Harris chose to use Bowen to defend Richmond, while adopting a defensive strategy of dribbling and trapping.

Such a ferocious and targeted defense made Richmond dumb and unable to speak. Which of the Lakers' three forward guards is the league's top outside defender, and they are actually in the bag. Didn't you guys even get into the bag for Jordan? Why bother against me, poor wretch.

Of course, the Lakers don't play Jordan because the Bulls still have Harper and Pippen, you must know that if you give up the defense, these two players can break out and set off the court! Pippen can be said to have carried the team to defeat the Pistons led by Grant Hill on Christmas Eve!

3-of-18, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 turnovers.

That's right, this is how Richmond behaved against the Lakers' three-forward guard, and everyone was gone.

At the end of the game, the Lakers beat the Kings back-to-back 95:77 on the road to Sacramento. Lock up Richmond and just throw the rest. After this game, Harris realized another point, in the face of a single-core team, the Lakers' bag seems to be very useful!

You must know that Kobe, Eddie Jones and Bowen are all tireless scud-type players who grease the soles of their feet, and rarely lose their position when rotating defenses!