LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers faced off against De'Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night, a matchup featuring two playoff contending teams in the state of California. With both teams looking to get off to a fast start to the 2023-24 season, it was the Kings who came away with a hard-fought overtime victory, defeating the Lakers 132-127 behind 37 points from Fox.

The Kings are now 2-1 on the season, looking to prove that their magical 48-34 season from a year ago was no fluke. With Fox and All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento has made it clear that they can compete with anyone in the league, something that James himself got to witness on Sunday night.

“They got the reigning Coach of the Year. I know what Mike Brown is all about, being able to play for him for many years and then just seeing his growth,” James said in his postgame remarks, via Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “Obviously he made his mark last year being the coach of this franchise. D-Fox is getting better and better, so they got a really good franchise.”

The job Brown and Fox have done completely reinventing the Kings is quite masterful. Once dwelling at the bottom of the league standings, Sacramento is now able to compete with the best teams in the league on a nightly basis. After making the playoffs last season, the Kings have set high title aspirations for themselves during the 2023-24 season.

Picking up an overtime victory against the Lakers is symbolic to the Kings not only because of the Lakers' status, but because this win shows that Sacramento is capable of once again finishing near the top of the league standings. Winning against your rivals is also pretty nice, especially when they have always been the ones to dominate the series.

While the Lakers have won close to 63 percent of their 446 all-time regular-season matchups against the Kings, Sacramento has had Los Angeles' number over the last few seasons, now winning eight of the last 12 matchups.

LeBron has an appreciation for organizations who are able to turn lack of success into playoff runs, especially since he was able to accomplish this for years when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Coincidently enough, as James alluded to, he was with Brown in Cleveland for some of these runs. Between his appreciate for the Kings' head coach and Fox, the Kings have definitely gained James' attention.

De'Aaron Fox and the Kings will face off against LeBron James and the Lakers again on November 15 in Los Angeles.