Lakers sleepwalk their way to 84-83 loss to Kings

Free throw woes, turnovers and overall sloppy play led to the Los Angeles Lakers’ 84-83 loss to the Sacramento Kings Sunday night at STAPLES Center. With a loss on Sunday, the Lakers and the Kings split the season series.

Neither teams looked too sharp coming out of the gate, but Sacramento was just good (read: less bad) enough to overcome Los Angeles in crunch time.

The Lakers shot 21.9 percent from behind the arc as a team with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missing all six of his attempts. Caldwell-Pope would still end the game with 16 points, the second-highest on the team.

Julius Randle ended the night with a team-high 19 points on 62.5 percent shooting from the field, but missed some crucial free throws in the fourth quarter. That wouldn’t have been so odd earlier in the season, but lately he’s been one of the most reliable free throw shooters on the team. It spoiled what was otherwise another great outing from the 23-year-old big man.

The Lakers shot 64 percent from the free throw line on the night.

Up ahead on the schedule for Los Angeles are two playoff hopeful teams in the Utah Jazz and the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers travel to Utah on Tuesday and fly back to host San Antonio on Wednesday.

The Lakers have a good opportunity to play spoiler for both of these teams, but with the way they’re playing shorthanded, it might just be another pair of ugly games. We’ll see you next time out.