LOS ANGELES (AP) — Artemi Panarin scored his first goal in a Kings uniform, and Los Angeles beat the New York Islanders 5-3 on Thursday night for the club's first victory under interim head coach D.J. Smith.

Panarin, Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist apiece for the Kings, and Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves. Samuel Helenius and Alex Laferriere also scored in just Los Angeles' second victory since January.

Kings captain Anze Kopitar had an assist while playing his 1,500th game, becoming the 25th player in NHL history to hit the mark. The Slovenian center, who is retiring this spring after 20 seasons in Los Angeles, is just five points away from passing Marcel Dionne to become the Kings’ career scoring leader.

Bo Horvat scored an improbable goal off a faceoff taken with a second left in the second period for the Islanders, but it didn't prevent a second straight blowout loss for New York in Southern California.

Adam Pelech scored the second short-handed goal of his 11-year career and Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 shots for the Isles, who had won five straight before losing to Anaheim and Los Angeles by a combined 10-4 over the past two nights.

Emil Heineman scored with 1:59 to play while Sorokin was pulled for the final 8 1/2 minutes of the third period.

Smith replaced Jim Hiller on Sunday after the Kings’ slump took them out of playoff position. Los Angeles played decently in his debut while losing to NHL-leading Colorado on Monday.

Panarin had three assists in his first four games with the Kings, who acquired the Russian star from the Rangers and signed him to a $22 million contract extension a month ago.

Panarin finally got his first Kings goal 3:17 after the opening faceoff when Kopitar found him utterly unmarked 10 feet from Sorokin. He also secured his 10th career 20-goal season.

Down 3-0, the Islanders finally scored on an unbelievable play: With one second showing on the clock, Jean-Gabriel Pageau won a faceoff straight to Horvat, who whipped a perfect one-timer past Kuemper's pad for his 26th goal.

Up next

Islanders: At San Jose on Saturday.

Kings: Host Montreal on Saturday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

DENVER (AP) — LeBron James has surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most field goals in NBA history.

James hit a turnaround 12-foot jumper over Zeke Nnaji with 12 seconds left in the first quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

The bucket gave James 15,838 career field goals in his unprecedented 23rd NBA season. Abdul-Jabbar had 15,837 baskets when the skyhook-wielding big man ended his 20-year career in 1989 as the NBA's career scoring leader. Karl Malone is a distant third with 13,528 field goals.

James passed Abdul-Jabbar to become the top scorer in NBA history in February 2023. James was already the top scorer in NBA playoff history, and he surpassed 50,000 career points in the regular season and postseason combined a year ago.

James has already attempted more field goals than any NBA player — 31,274 entering Thursday night, including more than 7,500 3-pointers.

Abdul-Jabbar, the low-post virtuoso who made more than 50% of his shots in 19 straight seasons to start his career, attempted only 28,307 field goals — and just 18 of them were 3-pointers after the shot was introduced to the league midway through his career.

Abdul-Jabbar was a career 55.9% shooter, while James has hit 51.6% of his shots.

James tied Abdul-Jabbar's record with his second basket of the game, an alley-oop dunk from Luca Doncic that cut Denver's early lead to 16-7.

Now 41, James regularly sets NBA records for longevity and career achievements — most recently becoming the oldest player to get a triple-double last month.

Before tipoff, Lakers coach J.J. Redick compared his superstar to another iconic American virtuoso: the Boss.

“Yeah, I’m a big Bruce Springsteen fan, and I would probably say his early albums really, really get me going,” Redick said. “There’s a youthfulness to him, you know, in energy. ‘Nebraska’ is actually my favorite album of all time. And that’s very different from what he had done that far in his career. And then you can kind of see the evolution of him as a singer-songwriter. and then he comes out with the greatest hits. And you’re like, ‘Wow, this is pretty good.’

“And then after that he comes out with ‘The Rising,’ which is one of the most important albums of the 2000s. So, you get to the end and you’re like, ‘Holy man, this guy’s greatest hits are like insane.’ And LeBron’s greatest hits, right? He just keeps adding to them. He just plays and plays and plays and the greatest hits, he’s got a hell of a catalog.”

Even more history awaits James later in March, barring injury: The Lakers' visit to the Nuggets was the 1,606th regular-season game of his career, putting him just five games behind Robert Parish (1,611) for the most in NBA history. James already holds the league's career record for playoff games with 292.

James says he hasn't decided whether to return to the Lakers next season, but he believes he could keep playing at a high level indefinitely. He was selected for the All-Star Game for the 22nd time in his career despite missing 18 games due to injury, precluding him from consideration for the postseason All-NBA teams.

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Beacham reported from Los Angeles. AP freelance writer Ashlyn Stapleton contributed.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luka Doncic had 28 points and nine assists, LeBron James added 24 points and the Los Angeles Lakers finished a back-to-back set with a 128-104 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.

Austin Reaves scored 12 points for the Lakers, who also won at Golden State on Saturday to end a three-game skid. After a week of unimpressive play following the All-Star break, Los Angeles snapped back into form on the weekend, beating its two Northern California rivals by a combined 52 points.

Doncic made four 3-pointers as the NBA's leading scorer played only the first three quarters, while James, Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard hit three 3s apiece. The Lakers made 17 of their first 33 3-point attempts while the starters were still playing, flirting with the franchise record for 3-point shooting percentage before finishing 18 of 39.

The 41-year-old James had a pair of rim-shaking dunks that he celebrated with zeal during a comfortable win for the Lakers, who never trailed again after Sacramento scored the game's opening basket.

Nique Clifford scored 26 points for the Kings in their fourth consecutive loss at the Lakers' downtown arena. Russell Westbrook had 14 points against his former team in his hometown.

NBA-worst Sacramento has lost 18 of 20.

Deandre Ayton had 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting for the Lakers, who opened a 22-point lead in the first half.

Doncic, Reaves and Ayton all got the fourth quarter off to rest up with four games looming over the next seven days. Los Angeles is still early in a five-week stretch with no consecutive days off.

Up next

Kings: Host Phoenix on Tuesday.

Lakers: Host New Orleans on Tuesday.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA