The Los Angeles Lakers survived a fourth-quarter surge from the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night, winning 114-110 at Crypto.com Arena in a preseason game that gave home fans their first look this fall at guard Austin Reaves.
Reaves, who sat out the Lakers’ first two preseason games after hurting his ankle in practice, was in the starting lineup alongside Luka Doncic, Quentin Grimes, Adou Thiero and Kevon Looney. The guard recently re-signed with Los Angeles on a four-year, $180 million contract, and his return steadied a rotation that the coaching staff has been piecing together through the opening week of the exhibition schedule.
Los Angeles built its cushion in the middle quarters. After a tight first period ended 21-20, the Lakers outscored Sacramento 36-23 in the second quarter and 29-27 in the third to carry a comfortable lead into the fourth. Sacramento, to its credit, refused to treat the final period like garbage time, ripping off a 40-point quarter to turn a laugher into a four-point finish.
Preseason basketball rarely offers clean conclusions, and this game was no exception: the Kings’ late run came largely against deep-rotation lineups, and the Lakers’ starters were long done for the night by the time the margin tightened. Still, the pattern of the game offered the coaching staff useful film — a starting group that generated efficient offense for three quarters, and a bench unit that struggled to close against Sacramento’s pressure.
For Sacramento, the comeback itself was the headline. A 40-point quarter on the road, even in October, is the kind of stretch coaches point to when they talk about pace and depth, and the Kings’ reserves played with a freedom that nearly stole the game. The loss dropped no one in the standings — there are no standings in the preseason — but it gave Sacramento a template for how its second unit can change a game’s temperature.
The Lakers, meanwhile, got the two things they most wanted from the night: minutes together for a starting five built around Doncic and Reaves, and a clean bill of health for a guard whose ankle injury in practice had been the team’s first scare of camp. Exhibition results fade quickly; availability does not, and Los Angeles now has its backcourt intact with the regular season approaching.
Both teams continue their preseason schedules this weekend as rotations tighten across the league. Starters who played cameo minutes in the first week will stretch toward regular-season loads, and the end-of-bench battles that produced Sacramento’s fourth-quarter fireworks will start resolving themselves. Thursday’s game, for all its late drama, will be remembered mostly for a debut: Reaves is back, and the Lakers’ season can properly begin.
The quarter-by-quarter line captured the evening’s rhythm. Sacramento won the first quarter by a point and the fourth by twelve; Los Angeles won everything in between, outscoring the Kings by a combined 24 points across the second and third quarters. That middle stretch is the version of the Lakers the franchise is selling this season — Doncic orchestrating, Reaves attacking closeouts, and a rotation long enough to keep pressure on for three quarters. The fourth quarter, played by men fighting for contracts, is the version October is for.
Reaves’ return also settles a question that had lingered over camp. An ankle injury suffered in practice, in the first week of October, can become a month-long story if a player rushes back and aggravates it. Instead, the Lakers slow-played their guard through two exhibition games and got him back with the bulk of the preseason still to play — enough time to rebuild rhythm with Doncic before the games count. For a team whose ceiling depends on its backcourt chemistry, Thursday may have been the most useful night of its October.
