Kings Have Little Reason to Feel Discouraged

One town, one team, one dream....

Well, two out of three aren’t bad.

The city is still intact, the Kings are unbowed, but the dream, which came so close to coming true, died Sunday.

The Lakers, who hadn’t led this series since Game 1, prevailed over the Kings, as they always seem to prevail over the Kings. King fans began streaming out in the closing seconds, deprived even of an obvious bad call to boo.

Of course, after Game 6, when the Lakers shot their now-famous 27 free throws in the fourth quarter, there’s no question King fans feel they were cheated, even worse than usual.

And it isn’t just the fans who feel that way.

“I’m just extremely disappointed for our team,” said a still-steaming Coach Rick Adelman. “They just played their hearts out in this series. Just seemed like they had their hearts ripped right out of them....

“I can’t say enough about how proud I am of this group, the way they approached every series and this series. I guess our time’s got to come some other year.”

Not that this game bore any resemblance to Game 6. The crew of Danny Crawford, Bernie Fryer and Ed F. Rush seemed intent on letting the players decide, letting a lot of jostling on both sides go as non-calls. They put Mike Bibby on the free-throw line with eight seconds left in regulation, giving him a chance to tie the score, after Kobe Bryant bumped him as he came to the ball.

Of course, someone still had to lose, meaning they wouldn’t feel too good about things in general.

And the team that lost was called for six fouls in overtime, to none for the winners.

“That probably had something to do with it,” said Adelman, laconically. “It’s a pretty good number. Of course, we did have to foul ‘em a few times [three times in the last 14 seconds, after the Lakers went ahead]....

“I think it’s obvious what happened in Game 6, that’s all I have to say. It was very obvious. The game changed, the way it was officiated the last two games. It’s as simple as that. I mean, Shaq gets in foul trouble. The last two, he doesn’t come close to it.”

Well, look at it from their perspective. You can’t play as well as the Kings did, come as close as they did, go through what they went through and exit smiling.

In two weeks, they grew into a legitimate power, capable of playing the mighty Lakers on even terms under any circumstance, on the Lakers’ floor, with O’Neal on top of his game.

The biggest lead the Lakers had after Game 1 was seven points. Meanwhile, the Kings led by 15 in Game 2, 27 in Game 3, 24 in Game 4, 10 in Game 5, seven in Game 6 and nine in the third quarter of Sunday’s Game 7.

Bibby, who just turned 24, happened before the Lakers’ eyes, and the Kings turned into Bibby’s team. Short and slight at 6-0, 185, Bibby is no physical prodigy but he had always been cerebral and efficient. In the last three weeks, however, he added something new to his game: stardom.

He averaged 23 points in this series, winning Game 5 with a 20-foot jumper, coming back with 29 Sunday, including 10 of the Kings’ last 12 in regulation.

Then he made two more shots in the overtime, giving the Kings their last two leads at 104-102 and 106-104.

“Mike had a coming-out party in the playoffs,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “He’s a bona fide star and he’s getting bona-fide-star calls. But he played great and he hit clutch shots.”

Jackson, who isn’t one to shower opponents with praise, even went so far as to observe the Kings “deserved to win” Sunday’s game.

Funny, that’s how the Kings saw it, too.

Until very recently, they were Chris Webber’s team, but the series suggested, as had Webber’s career, that while he may do many things--he had 20 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds and two blocks Sunday--making shots at the end of the game isn’t one of his strengths.

Since he now has the cold-blooded, sharp-shooting Bibby to help, this isn’t the problem for the Kings that it used to be.

“That’s been worn out, OK?” bristled Adelman when asked about Webber’s six points after halftime.

“Chris Webber’s the reason we’re here and the reason we could win this series....

“We had so many guys grow up during this time frame. You know, we’re not going away. I guarantee that. We’re not going away.”

However, like the good East teams that kept running into Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the ‘90s, the Kings are a promising young powerhouse in the same conference with a budding dynasty, so good luck.

Of course, the Kings are really up for the challenge now.

“Anybody could have won this series,” said Adelman. “If you want to say they’re the better team, you say it but I’m not.”

See you next year, same place, same time, it looks like.