Wednesday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Lakers continued their preseason tour by hosting the Sacramento Kings.

The Lakers won 109-101 despite being without stars like LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, Jarrett Vanderbilt, and Cam Reddish. The rest of the squad stepped up huge. At the midway point of their preseason schedule, L.A. has a 2-1 record.

With the Lakers missing so many key players, Gabe Vincent was thrust into the starting lineup. Rui Hachimura contributed to the early Los Angeles lead, sinking a pair of three-pointers and a pair of free throws.

For the rest of the first quarter, D’Angelo Russell was the driving force, scoring eight points and dishing out five assists as he orchestrated numerous easy baskets for himself and his teammates.

However, the Kings went hot at the end of the period, as Harrison Barnes made a pair of threes and Malik Monk made one to narrow the lead to 30–28 after one.

Later in the second quarter, the Kings took the lead thanks to a three-pointer by Chris Duarte. However, the Lakers responded quickly as Vincent and Max Christie made consecutive 3-pointers.

Despite Domantas Sabonis picking up three fouls in the middle of the second quarter, Sacramento’s talents De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield finally got going offensively after a slow first quarter. Near the conclusion of the first half, Taurean Prince found his deep stroke for the Lakers, but the Kings still managed to take a 51-50 advantage into the break.

Fox’s aggressive play continued throughout the third quarter, when he eventually fouled Russell while he was shooting from beyond the arc. After Russell found Prince for another open corner 3, he drained two of his own to help the Lakers increase their advantage to 70-62.

Late in the third quarter, with the Lakers up by double digits, Darvin Ham virtually emptied the bench to let the younger players finish the game.

On 8-of-12 shooting, Russell led Los Angeles with 21 points, three boards, and eight dimes. While Prince and Hachimura scored 13 points apiece, Vincent added 15.

After the Lakers’ youthful guns completed the third quarter strongly, they took a commanding 90-79 advantage into the final period. In the fourth, they carried that momentum into a 17-point lead thanks to the efforts of Max Christie and Maxwell Lewis.