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The Los Angeles Lakers’ defense did more that enough to stifle the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, as evidenced by the Lakers’ 116-103 road win.
But that final score didn’t stop Kings guard Zach LaVine from taking a shot at Los Angeles’ defense after the game.
“They’ve got some bad defenders on their team, but so do we, so they exploited them,” LaVine said about the Lakers, per an X post from Brenden Nunes.
LaVine, who finished with 21 points on 6-for-14 shooting from the field, also spoke about how Luka Dončić shredded the Kings’ defense, and how the Lakers make it hard when they funnel their offense through Walker Kessler down low.
“It’s just frustrating when you play hard, and you give it your all. No one is gonna be perfect, regardless of how much you try of whatever. But it’s just unfortunate sometimes. But we’re still competing,” he added.
“They’ve got some bad defenders on their team, but so do we, so they exploited them…”
Zach LaVine on where things went downhill in the Kings’ 116-103 loss to the Lakers: pic.twitter.com/g84tiBvacE
— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) November 5, 2026
The Lakers are absolutely more of an offensive juggernaut than a defensive-minded team, at least on the individual level.
But it still didn’t feel like the right time for LaVine to take this shot at Los Angeles, even though he admitted his own squad struggles in the same way.
The Lakers’ opponents are averaging 113.9 points per game this season, which is No. 17 in the NBA. Sacramento is allowing 123.3 points per game, coming in at No. 28.
Perhaps LaVine should spend more time looking in the mirror.
