Kings Put Royal Hurt on Dallas

Steve Nash slumped in a metal folding chair in front of his locker. He looked as if he had just been slam dunked, which is sort of what happened to all of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals Saturday at Arco Arena.

Something strange happened to the Mavericks, said Nash, who was able to trace most of it to a 108-91 thumping administered by the Sacramento Kings.

“We weren’t ourselves tonight,” Nash said.

Just who they were isn’t clear, except possibly to the Kings, who found the Mavericks pretty useful as something to pound on for a while, like tenderizing steak.

The Kings are fortunate because they can fill the space under the basket with some heavy furniture, such as Chris Webber and Vlade Divac. Meanwhile, the Mavericks can really counter only with Raef LaFrentz, who is not known for his physical presence, and Wang Zhizhi, a 7-foot-1 curiosity most comfortable hoisting three-pointers.

It’s not as though the Mavericks didn’t know they were going to be tested inside, it’s just that there really wasn’t much they could do about it. Divac had 18 points and 16 rebounds, nine in the first quarter, and Chris Webber had 20 points and 10 rebounds even though he played only 35 minutes because of fouls.

The Mavericks countered inside with Dirk Nowitzki, who had 14 rebounds and 24 points even though he missed two-thirds of his 24 shots, but Eduardo Najera and LaFrentz, the other two front-line starters, had seven points and nine rebounds between them.

Webber fouled out with 4 minutes 9 seconds to go, but the Kings hardly missed him, safely ahead, 98-86, and cruising toward Monday night’s Game 2 at Arco Arena.

Webber said it’s not as if the Kings played a perfect game or anything.

“I’m sure we can get better in a lot of areas,” he said. “You can always be more focused next time.”

There could have been a little more focus in the first half, at least on shooting the ball, because neither team did that very well. Peja Stojakovic had 16 of his 26 points in the first half, which ended with the Kings ahead, 55-50.

At the same time, Webber wasn’t doing much--three for 11, three fouls, two turnovers.

“I was personally frustrated,” he said. “I tried not to think about not playing well and I went into the locker room at halftime and really just tried to relax.”

It must have worked, because Webber scored 13 points in the second half and set the tone under the backboards in concert with Divac. The Kings were ahead, 91-81, with 9:11 to go, then watched as the hapless Mavericks went exactly seven minutes without scoring a field goal.

And when they did, it was too late. The Kings’ lead was 14 points on Doug Christie’s three-pointer with 1:44 left, which meant the only thing left to do was figure out what Game 2 is going to mean.

For the Kings, they’re going to try to forget losing at Arco to Utah in the first round. For the Mavericks, they’re going to try to forget shooting 38.9% as they they did Saturday and figure out how to jump-start their cutting, slashing, fluid offensive style of play.

“None of our guys are going to look at this game and say ‘Let’s put that up on the front of the fridge,’” said Maverick assistant Del Harris. “We all figured this to be a seven-game series, which means everybody is going to get beat sometime.”

It’s going to be very difficult for the Mavericks if they lose Monday night at Arco, but they are secure in the knowledge that they had won three in a row at the arena before Saturday.

The Kings, who were 36-5 at home during the regular season, believe their defense will hold the key to their success.

“We wanted to try to make them take shots over people and put pressure on people,” King Coach Rick Adelman said.