Lakers vs. Kings preview: Take care of business before hitting the road

The Los Angeles Lakers will be heading out for a three-game road trip soon, but have a home game against the Sacramento Kings to take care of before packing up and leaving Southern California. The Kings are without DeMarcus Cousins for a bit as he recovers from viral meningitis, which means Sacramento isn't the formidable opponent they've been to start the season.

Still, the Lakers don't have games that should be considered "winnable" anymore, a sentiment Nick Young echoed during a postgame interview recently. The season is 21 games in, and there's little progress being made toward improvement. Instead, the locker room quotes have been melancholy, ranging from Titanic sinking references, to dissonance over lineup changes. It's not been a good season for the Lakers, even with Kobe Bryant back and leading the league in scoring.

There will come a time and point when the wins seem more harmful than hurtful, but right now, it still feels too early to throw the towel in. Maybe the euphoria of winning doesn't matter, but the repeated losing is exhausting. There's only so many Sad Swaggy P quotes one fan can handle.

Beating up a Kings team without their franchise center seems like an attainable goal for this Lakers team, but who knows. Let's see if they can take care of business before beginning a three-gamer in San Antonio on Friday. Enjoy the game.

Time: 7:30 p.m. PT

Station: TWCSN, NBATV