The Sacramento Kings fell to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, suffering their seventh loss in their first eight games of the season, and it is hard to imagine things getting much better for this team. Fortunately, they have at least looked better over their past two games, but they still have a lot of work to do before they're ready to be taken seriously.

The worst part about Wednesday's loss, though, is that it feels like they had a chance to win. Sure, they lost by double digits, but if they clean up a few simple things, they could start to string together some more wins. After Wednesday's loss, Kings star Zach LaVine spoke about what went wrong in their loss to the Lakers.

"We gotta cut down on turnovers. I had a couple of dumb ones, and we had just a couple of unfortunate plays too," LaVine said. "But versus a team like the Lakers, who've been hot, and Luka [Doncic] goes for 20-something in the second quarter. ... They're a big team. They send everything to Kessler. They've got some bad defenders on their team, but so do we, so they exploited them."

The Kings lost the turnover battle 18-12 and allowed the Lakers to score 23 points off turnovers. If Sacramento had taken better care of the ball, Wednesday night's result could've been different, but this is simply something they need to work on.

LaVine himself had a team-high six turnovers, which he admitted he had "a couple of dumb ones," but he is not the only player with this issue. Darius Acuff Jr. is averaging 3.6 turnovers per game this season, Domantas Sabonis is averaging 3.5, and LaVine is averaging 3.4. There are only 18 NBA players averaging 3.4 or more turnovers, and three of them play in Sacramento.

At least they are trying, right?

While the Kings have struggled to take care of the ball and play defense, LaVine claims there is no shortage of effort.

"It's just frustrating when you play hard and you give it your all. No one's gonna be perfect, regardless of how much you try or whatever, but it's just unfortunate sometimes. But we're still competing," LaVine said.

Despite their 1-7 record, this Kings team is actually showing some effort every night. Last season, there were plenty of questions about how much these players cared, but it is easy to tell this year that they are trying their best to win; they just keep falling short.

Granted, it was always going to be hard to take down this Lakers team, especially when Luka Doncic goes for 40 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. After the game, LaVine made sure to give Doncic his flowers.

"Luka's one of the most talented players of all time. I don't think people actually give him enough credit for how good he really is," he said. "The shot-making ability is insane. ... He's one of the best scorers of all time."

Doncic obviously took advantage of Sacramento's weak defense, especially with a clear lack of defenders who are actually capable of stopping the Lakers superstar in isolation.

The Kings have some obvious flaws to work on, but some of their biggest issues stem from their roster construction. We will see what Doug Christie can do with this group, but there is not much hope.