Lakers Pin One Last Loss on Kansas City Kings

Byron Scott scored 25 points to lead the Lakers to a 122-116 victory Sunday over Kansas City in an emotional game that brought an end to the Kings’ 13-year history in Kansas City.

The Kings, who were sold last year to a group of Sacramento investors, are expected to get approval this week from the National Basketball Assn. board of governors to move there.

The Lakers will go into the playoffs this week with a 62-20 record, second in the league only to the Boston Celtics.

The Kings finished the season and their era in Kansas City with a 31-51 mark, last in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference.

The Kings, cheered on by a vocal crowd of 11,371, bolted to a 43-28 first-quarter lead but saw the Lakers close to 66-63 at halftime and tie the score at 72-72 early in the third period.

The Lakers, beating the Kings for the 14th straight time, fell behind by nine points at 115-106 with 3:49 left when Mike Woodson hit a short jumper. But that turned out to be the final field goal for Kansas City. Eddie Johnson’s free throw in the final seconds was the only offense the Kings were able to manage the rest of the way.

Bob McAdoo put the Lakers on top 116-115 with a jump shot at the 1:10 mark, then made it 117-115 with a free throw a few seconds later.

Woodson led the Kings with 25 points, and Larry Drew had 22.

McAdoo scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth period. The Lakers were without leading players Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who did not make the trip.

The Lakers had 31 assists to run their season total to 2,575, breaking the mark of 2,562 set by Milwaukee in 1978-79.

“We knew we were going to face a very emotional situation coming in here,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “We talked about it. We didn’t want to fly 2,500 miles roundtrip for a loss. I think our players showed a lot of character the way they came back to win.”

The Kings’ departure has been known since January. But it was evident that many among the crowd hated to see them go.

Much of the crowd’s emotion was directed at Joe Axelson, the Kings’ longtime general manager who was blamed by many fans for the team’s departure.

“We want fat Axe!” yelled one section of the arena, while other fans kicked and pummeled a dummy resembling Axelson. Hundreds of spectators wore masks resembling Axelson.

“Nuke Sacramento,” said one sign. “Thanks for the Memories,” said another. “Kill Axelson,” said another.

“We wanted very much to win this game for our fans here,” King Coach Phil Johnson said. “I felt something special and I know the players did, too. We got a little wild in the second half and threw the ball away too many times. That’s why we lost.”

NBA basketball came to an end in Kansas City a few minutes after 4 p.m. CST when the buzzer sounded for the final game the Kansas City Kings will ever play.

“Turn out the lights,” said veteran public address announcer Johnny Dolan. “The party’s over.”

And 11,000 sad Kansas Citians filed out of Kemper Arena as the band played “Auld Lang Syne.”