Kings Pin Lakers to Wall

By TIM KAWAKAMI

May 3, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SACRAMENTO —

So that’s the sound of a 67-victory season being edged toward detonation.

The sound of elation. The sound of desperation. The sound of everything blending in and pouring out, until the Lakers could do nothing but clasp their ears shut, accept it and steel themselves, amazingly, for one game that will decide their first-round series with the Sacramento Kings.

The sound of defeat.

In a torrid battle, amid the roaring appreciation of their sold-out Arco Arena crowd, the Kings scorched the Lakers, 101-88, in Game 4 of this best-of-five series and improbably sent it to an all-or-nothing finale.

Despite Kobe Bryant’s frantic one-man comeback attempt and Shaquille O’Neal’s banging inside, Chris Webber’s 23 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists and gigantic games from Jon Barry and Tony Delk were too much on this night.

The Lakers faced a moment of truth Tuesday, and flew back to L.A. a little rattled and possibly possessing their first hint of doubt.

“They outhustled us, they outworked us,” Bryant said. “They played like they had more at stake than us, and they did.”

So Game 5, which seemed an impossibility after the Lakers’ back-to-back easy victories at Staples Center, will be Friday, with the Lakers’ season on the line.

“They failed--not just ‘jury’s out,’ they failed in their first test,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “But this team doesn’t have to do anything but win their home games to win the championship. That’s the reality.”

On Tuesday, the Kings, as they did Sunday, crackled with energy and swarmed the Lakers all over the court.

“This is a game that Sacramento outplayed us right from tip to buzzer,” Jackson said. “They outplayed us basically for 48 minutes.”

After falling behind early by double digits because of poor shooting, the Lakers chipped back at the Kings throughout the second half, but Webber, Vlade Divac and the rest of the Kings consistently came up with plays to halt any Laker run.

By the third quarter, every trip down the floor carried shrieks of sounds and enormous measurements of gravity and pressure.

By midway through the third, nobody could hear much of anything, and the whole building seemed to quiver with excitement.

For most of the second half, Divac kept making jumpers, O’Neal kept wrestling his way to his own baskets, Bryant flew, Jason Williams flung the ball to all corners and the Lakers could make up little ground.

Then, the fourth quarter started and the Kings hit the Lakers with everything they had.

Delk and Predrag Stojakovic, both certified Laker-killers, scored seven points in the first 2:07 of the quarter, vaulting Sacramento’s lead to 80-68 and forcing Jackson to call timeout for one last push.

That was Bryant’s cue, apparently.

In the face of the defense, Bryant made back-to-back acrobatic baskets--following O’Neal’s two-for-two trip to the free-throw line--which narrowed the King lead to 84-76 with 6:15 to play.

But that was it--Barry made a three-pointer, Webber knocked the ball loose from Bryant and finished with a fastbreak dunk, and suddenly the series was tied, 2-2.

O’Neal, who had only three points in the first quarter, finished with 25 points (on 10-for-22 shooting) and 16 rebounds.

Bryant finished with 32 points, his third consecutive outing in excess of 30 points.

Sacramento Coach Rick Adelman said he was proud of his team. “Maybe they thought they were going to come up here and we were going to go away,” Adelman said of the Lakers, “but we didn’t go away.”

How loud was it inside Arco Arena? Whatever’s about three notches above deafening, so loud that the baskets seemed to sway, at least for Laker shooters in the first quarter.

If King fans needed any more incentive--and they didn’t--the Lakers gave it to them with a dud of a first quarter, making only six of their 20 field-goal tries on their way to an 18-point period.

Sacramento did what it does best, racing up and down and in every direction, galloping to a 27-18 lead at the end of the quarter.

It was adversity, and Jackson before the game said he looked forward to seeing his players’ reaction to it.

“It sets everybody into action,” Jackson said. “Your whole nervous system kind of generates a little bit hotter. I don’t relish it, but it’s what I’ve been doing for all these years. It kind of seems to be part of the battle.

“From that standpoint, I like what it brings out in players, and I like what it brings out in myself.”

O’Neal was more aggressive than he was in his listless Game 3 outing, but still found the going difficult, making only one of three shots and scoring three points.

The Lakers, though, found some direction in the second quarter behind Bryant, O’Neal and Rice.

The Lakers closed it to within, 46-43, but another King run jumped the lead back up to 56-45 at halftime.

“I want our guys to return to playing with enjoyment and levity,” Jackson said. “We played like we had too much weight on our shoulders.”

Jackson tightened his rotation to seven main players, and later said he probably erred, after the Kings’ bench outscored the Laker reserves, 42-8. “I didn’t go very deep in the rotation, and that probably was a mistake,” Jackson said.

Said O’Neal: “We did what we were supposed to do, win at home. They did what they were supposed to do, win at home. Now we’ve got to finish it up at home.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Series by The Numbers

Times Lakers led in Game: 4

Points scored by Kings’ bench in Game 4: 42

Points scored by Lakers’ bench in Game 4: 8

Laker field-goal percentage in tow victories: .503

Laker field-goal percentage in two losses: .393

Three-game losing streaks or Lakers this season: 0

Scoring Breakdown

Game 4: Sacramento 101, Lakers 88

Starters vs. Bench

Lakers