Since becoming a team in 1948, then the Rochester Royals, the Sacramento Kings have never won all their regular season games against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers had been founded a year earlier and were based in Minneapolis (The Land of 10,000 Lakes), hence the "Lakers" team name.
By the time the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960, the Rochester Royals moved to Cincinnati before eventually winding up in Kansas City and then finally settling in Sacramento. But since the Kings and the Lakers were both founded, the latter went on to outpace the former with 16 NBCA championships compared to one.
The Kings' 106-98 win Tuesday night marked the first time they beat the Lakers every time they played them in the regular season. Darren Collison and DeMarcus Cousins each scored 22 while Rudy Gay added 20, but the Kings also held Lakers' guards DeAngelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson to 26 points and four assists combined.
"Anytime you win a game on the road by (eight) points and sustain the tempo and emotion of the game, it's good," Kings' head coach George Karl said after the game. "It's good to get out of our funk and off the losing streak and put some joy back into the locker room. It's another step in a good direction."
Though the Kings accomplished something that had never been done in franchise history, it came during a 26-40 season in which the team is in between climbing out of the Western Conference cellar and competing for the NBA Playoffs' eighth seed.
"Consistency has been one of our biggest problems," Cousins said after the game. "It's frustrating. We're still trying to figure it out. But the one thing about this locker room is that we stick together. We believe in one another and we just keep pushing forward, trying to finish the season strong."
Kobe Bryant's so-called "farewell tour" has been one of the only things getting fans to come to the Staples Center for Laker home games. The Lakers are 14-54 and seemed bound to finish no better than their 21-61 finish last season. In addition to missing out on seeing Bryant, Lakers fans' frustrations again manifested in choruses of boos, as their team seemingly beat themselves once again.
"I thought it was justified, yeah," Lakers' head coach Byron Scott said of the booing. "We just didn't seem ready to play for whatever reason."
