On Wednesday against the Kings, you had plenty of options to choose from for the Lakers. One could point to the slow start in the opening quarter, Anthony Davis’ struggles defending Domantas Sabonis, or the lack of offensive output up and down the roster through most of the game.

LeBron James chose to focus on the team’s turnovers.

“There was a lot that had an effect on the game,” James said. “I think definitely turnovers. They did a good job of being in the passing lane. We turned the ball over way too many times and allowed them to score off our turnovers. A couple of times, it broke our run when we had good defensive stops or whatever the case may be and they were able to read some of our passes.”

In the fourth, the Lakers were fighting an uphill battle, down by 24. They shrunk the deficit to nine before several turnovers sealed their fate. A bad pass by Davis at the four-minute mark led to a Keegan Murray dunk. James lost his handle, resulting in a Harrison Barnes steal and then Austin Reaves got swiped by Barnes with 1:58 left in the game.

With 86 seconds left, the conceded the match, emptying their bench.

Our ‘Access SportsNet’ crew discuss the Lakers turnovers (23) that led to 30 pts for the Sacramento Kings. pic.twitter.com/GO1mHegLPE

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 16, 2023

Turnovers are a double negative in basketball. It ends an offensive possession and often puts the opposing team in an advantageous position to score.

Against the Kings, the Lakers had 23 turnovers, the most they’ve had all year and Sacramento took advantage, scoring 30 points off those turnovers. Five of those points came in the closing minutes.

While turnovers were a glaring issue up and down the roster on Wednesday, the good news is Los Angeles can move past this game quickly, facing off against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday. L.A. just played Portland last Sunday and found success, beating the Trail Blazers 116-110 and committing just nine turnovers in that victory.

Replicating that result would be ideal.