Dynamic Duo Make Lakers Kings This Time

Talk about transition basketball.

In a day, the Lakers went from bad to good, went from stagnant to free-flowing, went from stuck in the mud to leaping and flying and slamming.

Went from tired to wired.

Now, the Sacramento Kings helped, of course, because if you think the Lakers can play outrageously, uproariously fast, loose, wild and crazy, you haven’t seen anything until you see the kooky-crazy Kings.

The Lakers saw it, felt warmed by it, and took total advantage to kong the Kings in a hyper-speed 104-89 victory before 17,317 at ARCO Arena.

Sacramento torched the Lakers in two previous meetings with the uptempo style, but on Wednesday the Kings committed 24 turnovers and Shaquille O’Neal (30 points, 18 rebounds), Kobe Bryant (18 points, seven assists) and a dynamic Derek Fisher took care of the rest.

This time, as opposed to their home-court loss to Utah on Tuesday, the Lakers shared the ball--producing easy baskets and good feelings among the sometimes-tense team.

“We wanted to start something new,” said forward Robert Horry, who had eight rebounds and two assists of his own. “We have a tendency not to pass the ball enough sometimes.

“If we want to be a good team, we’ve got to pass the ball. We wanted to share the love.”

Bryant particularly seemed to be focusing on creating offense for his teammates instead of getting his shots, knifing past his man and tossing several bullet passes--some were dropped, some were turned into dunks, but all were appreciated.

“It was nice, wasn’t it?” Laker Coach Kurt Rambis said of the offensive display. “I know we got a bunch of turnovers, but most of the guys were trying to do the right thing.

“I was really happy with Kobe’s game.”

And Fisher, whose job had been potentially challenged by rookie Tyronn Lue, had his best game in weeks, coming off the bench to score 19 points and hand out six assists in 34 inspirational minutes.

He also had a spotlight play--a midcourt steal of hyped rookie Jason Williams, who had 12 points and two assists--that helped to erase some of his struggling moments against Williams in the previous two match-ups.

“I really felt fresh,” said Fisher, who missed most of Tuesday’s game because of a sore knee. “The last time we had this match-up, I didn’t feel anywhere close to as fresh as I did tonight.”

Neither Fisher nor Rambis indicated that Fisher’s role was ever in jeopardy, but Rambis smiled at the thought and said if that’s what got Fisher to play at a higher level, he could keep on thinking that way if he wanted.

This is not to say that the Lakers (24-13) didn’t get drawn into the goofy pace--they had 22 of their own turnovers. Bryant had eight of them.

But they had too much firepower, too much control, and just enough defense to have an answer for every showboat King surge and take over this game with their most explosive run in a long time.

It was the Lakers’ third game in three nights, a situation that earlier led to three consecutive defeats and the firing of Del Harris.

This time, the Lakers emerged relatively OK, 2-1 in the stretch, triggered by a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter to push their lead to 91-76.

From there, Sacramento wilted into a series of horrible passes and no-conscience bombs.

The two teams went back and forth through most of the third quarter, until the Lakers inched ahead in the final minutes.

Fox made back-to-back jump shots, the second a three-point basket, to give the Lakers the lead for good, 70-69, with 2:14 left in the quarter.

“You don’t want to let any team feel like they can just dominate you,” Horry said of the Kings. “Sacramento, they’re a funny type of team. They score a lot of points, do a lot of things differently from a lot of teams.”

Chris Webber had 21 points and 16 rebounds for the Kings, but he and former Laker Vlade Divac also combined for 13 turnovers.

NBA

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