Kings a Royal Pain to Lakers

The Sacramento Kings won a game, stopped a streak and gave a dispirited league some hope Friday night.

The Lakers lost, the kind of thing that happens almost every month now, it seems.

Shaquille O’Neal stood afterward in royal blue, head to foot, and sighed, impatiently.

The Kings were 97-91 winners at Arco Arena, without Chris Webber, their best player, and beat Philadelphia and the Lakers, June’s NBA finalists, in the same week. The Lakers lost for the first time in 10 games, for the second time in 18 games.

The Kings rushed off the floor, pulling at their jerseys, grinning at the effort that cast the Lakers as something less than bullet-proof, despite all evidence otherwise. They had not defeated the Lakers in the regular season here in two years. Indeed, the last time they saw the Lakers in Sacramento, the Lakers were on their way to their second consecutive NBA title, having swept the Kings in four games.

So, O’Neal was asked if the Lakers had become vulnerable in the eyes of the Kings. After all, Peja Stojakovic scored 25 points, five others scored in double figures and the crowd nearly wept at the victory.

O’Neal, who scored 31 points in spite of missing eight of 11 free throws, and took 16 rebounds, shook his head.

“They know,” he said. “Deep down, they know.”

He grinned.

“They played a great game and we still had a couple opportunities to win,” he said. “They played their best. We played 60 or 65%.

“Out of 18 games, I’ll take 16-2 anytime. We just have to bounce back and start another streak, and we will.

“We can’t win them all. Mike Bibby hit a lot of lucky shots today, but the whole team played great.”

Then he pushed through the cameras, toward the bus, toward a weekend off in Los Angeles.

Three weeks to the day since their last loss, the Lakers were led by O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who scored 23 points. But they lacked more scoring options. The Kings finished the game from the free-throw line, holding to a fourth-quarter lead that went from 14 to three. Stojakovic scored 15 points in the quarter, seven of them from the line. He also made all three of his field-goal attempts, including both three-pointers.

Sacramento Coach Rick Adelman called it “A great win.” Guard Bobby Jackson called it, “Extremely important.” Stojakovic called it, “Huge.”

The Lakers shrugged.

The Lakers are vulnerable in subtle places, mostly where the games of Bryant and O’Neal do not reside, where the jump shots are short, where Stojakovic can score, where Bibby can rub through screens and come out open.

O’Neal missed his free-throw attempts, and Bryant missed 13 of 21 field-goal attempts, but there was little offense without them.

“We put ourselves back in a position to win it,” Bryant said. “Oh well. We just have to live with it.”

Even at the end, with a large enough lead, and the Kings steady at the free-throw line, the lion mascot clasped its hands over its head, so certain something terrible and crazy would happen, and Sacramento would be Sacramento again, and the Lakers would go gleefully back home.

O’Neal left the court, and a town sensed it was over, up 10 points with less than two minutes left. The Kings’ players slapped each others’ hands, the fans unclenched their jaws, and reserve players whipped up the crowd with white towels.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “When we had open shots, we were reluctant to shoot, or they didn’t go in.”

They made only four of 19 threes, so the guards never pulled the sagging Kings off O’Neal, and therefore the Lakers lost for only the third time since April 1, a span of 42 games.

Three nights before, in the waning minutes of the Kings’ win against Philadelphia, the crowd turned its attention to the only thing it cared about, the only thing that matters in the Western Conference. “Beat L.A.!” it pleaded. “Beat L.A.!”

Then the Kings went about it, mostly from the perimeter. They made eight of 12 threes. In November’s loss to the Lakers at Staples Center, they missed 18 of 19.

Scot Pollard scored 10 points in the third quarter, and the Lakers missed 11 of 16 shots, and that’s how the Kings’ lead became too big, the Kings’ jumpers became too true, and the Kings’ confidence too sturdy.

The Lakers trailed by as many as 13 points in the first quarter. The deficit was 21-8, at the end of an 11-0 run by the Kings.

At the end of the quarter, only O’Neal (10) and Bryant (9) had scored. Everybody else--beginning with Lindsey Hunter, who was 0 for 4--was 0 for 9.

Hunter’s start--missing shots and losing Bibby off the ball--meant Jackson would modify his Hunter-Fisher platoon. Since Fisher’s return from foot surgery, Jackson had played Hunter in the first and third quarters, Fisher in the second and fourth. The pattern saved wear on Fisher’s foot, and had Fisher shooting free throws in the fourth quarter.

From a 38-27 deficit in the second quarter, the Lakers scored 13 of the next 15 points. To the dismay of the people here, where it’s never too early for the game of the year, the Lakers pulled to 40-40.

But the crowd found reason to cheer again. Even if it is only December.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Throne Room

Comparing the Lakers to Sacramento this season in some key categories:

LAKERS CATEGORY KINGS

16-2 RECORD 15-5

.460 FIELD GOAL % .451

.657 FREE THROW % .719

100.7 POINTS PG 101.1

90.5 OPP. PPG 93.2

44.7 REBOUNDS PG 46.8

22.8 ASSISTS PG 22.5

13.7 TURNOVERS PG 13.5

.330 3-PT FG% .365