There were undeniable truths when watching the Kings lose 106-99 Tuesday night to the Los Angeles Lakers at Arco Arena before a sellout crowd of 17,361.

In many ways, the defending champions were everything the Kings could hope to become. As a unit, the long, athletic Lakers knew where to go on the court, when and how to get there and what to do when presented opportunities.

Following a win the night before in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors, Kobe Bryant opened the game against the Kings super-aggressively with 12 first-quarter field-goal attempts. He helped set the tone, scoring a team-high 30 points, and the rest of his team followed.
The natural matchup of Bryant vs. Kings rookie Tyreke Evans loomed over the contest. Evans, who led the Kings with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, encountered one problem which Bryant did not.

The size of the Lakers front line with seven-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, often supported by 6-foot-10 Lamar Odom coming off the bench, made it difficult for Evans to get all the way to the basket. It was to blame for the rookie's 7 of 19 field-goal shooting.

Los Angeles (50-18) was able to clog the middle defensively and forced the Kings to take a number of challenged jump shots they were not consistently capable of making.

With half of Arco Arena sporting Lakers gold, that was all the Lakers fans needed to dominate the Kings fans as their team dominated on the court.

Sacramento's Carl Landry played his first game as a King against the Lakers and wondered what was going on as early as the pre-game workout.

"What's with all the Lakers jerseys in here?" said Landry, who had a solid 15-point, 10-rebound effort.

Kings coach Paul Westphal said he could not complain about Sacramento's effort.

"I can't ... be super down about our effort against the NBA champions," he said. "It's really fantastic to have this building full, even though there were too many Lakers fans for my taste, it's a great thing to have that support. I thought we played a good basketball game in a lot of ways - solid.

"We need to get a few more rebounds against a team that has great size. (We) need to knock down a few more shots and need to make a few more experienced plays the Lakers are great at because of how long they have been together, their cohesiveness and how good they are."

Sacramento fell behind 30-17 one possession into the second quarter, but rallied behind the combination of reserves Andres Nocioni,

Jason Thompson, Omri Casspi, Francisco Garcia and Evans to get its first lead at 35-34. The Lakers led 49-48 at the half, but seized control early in the third quarter by limiting the Kings to a 38 percent field-goal shooting.

It was easy to see how hard the Kings were working to get a rare good shot, while the Lakers were able to go inside to Bynum (21 points on 9 of 14 shooting) and Gasol (28 on 12 of 14 shooting).

Thompson said he noticed how poised the Lakers performed.

"You're talking about a team that has all but one guy (former Kings swingman Ron Artest) that won the NBA title last year and played in the Finals the year before," Thompson said. "Sure, they have Kobe, but they have a number of guys who know how to step up and will step up in given situations. That's not just scoring, but being where they are supposed to be when they should be there.
"That's just experience and there is only one way to get that. We haven't been together long enough."