For Whom Cowbells Toll: Kings Search for Answers

Anyone looking for a good buy on 2,000 cowbells?

Or, “Oh, them again.”

The game the Sacramento Kings had to win to hold home-court advantage, to show the world--and themselves--they could slay the giant, the one they waited for all season, was effectively settled in 12 minutes Saturday, by which time the Lakers were 14 points ahead.

After that, it was more like a game but not enough like one for the Kings, who lost, 106-99, and reclaimed their old role: Hello, little darkhorses.

“I don’t know,” said Coach Rick Adelman, asked if his players had been nervous. “I wish I knew. Guess I’d better find out by Monday [when they play Game 2].... You could say maybe it was nerves for us or maybe we were too pumped up, but they looked pretty pumped up and they were doing the job.”

Nerves?

There’s one we hadn’t heard in a while. Everyone at this level gets nervous. The Boston Celtics’ Bill Russell was known for being ill before every game, on his way to 11 titles in 13 seasons.

Try this:

The Lakers played their A game Saturday (or, as Kobe Bryant put it, “Thank God, we played a good first quarter”), after having gone weeks, or months, without such a display of force. The Kings aren’t good enough to beat them when they do that, nor is anyone else.

Nerves, bad defense, a rare showing for the Laker role players who shot the lights out, bad calls....

The Kings ran them all out, but the fact is, they’ve lost six of their last seven at home to the Lakers, while going 72-13 against everyone else.

The Lakers had won seven of eight postseason games with a minimum of domination, trailing in the second half of four of their five home games.

But they’re never better than when they’re playing one of the few teams they actually fear a little, like the San Antonio Spurs or the Kings, in hostile surroundings, like the Alamodome or Arco Arena, filled as it was Saturday with 17,317 semi-civilized, redneck, pompom-waving, cowbell-clanging fans.

And so the Lakers came out again Saturday and pounced on the Kings, like a lion on a hamburger.

Derek Fisher missed the first shot. The Lakers’ next nine went in.

“Some of those shots are shots you want them to take, not involving No. 8 [Kobe Bryant] and No. 34 [Shaquille O’Neal].... I haven’t seen them shoot that well in a long time, as far as the other players are concerned,” the Kings’ Chris Webber said.

Well, that’s true, but that’s what happens when a team gets hot, the confidence becomes contagious.

Besides, O’Neal made three of those shots, which was a good sign for the Lakers. Phil Jackson said beforehand O’Neal had been “feeling his way, more than I’ve ever seen him feel his way, early in games,” but in this one, Shaq was ready from the get-go.

Then there was Bryant.

The Kings are certainly better than they have ever been, but so is Bryant, which makes it hard to close the gap.

“You know, he always looks the same to me,” Adelman said. “Because he kicks our tails every time we play ‘em.... There’s nothing he can’t do and he’s got that killer instinct.”

The game turned into catch-up, the Kings couldn’t and now they don’t have as much air in their balloon as they used to.

The fans spent the second half booing the referees and trading conspiracy theories. You knew lead official Dick Bavetta couldn’t do anything right when he stopped the game to have a wet spot mopped up and was booed for that, too.

The fans also booed Robert Horry when he left the game after getting hit in the face.

Not that it reflected the overall officiating, but replays suggested the referees blew two calls against the Kings (Doug Christie picking up a foul for getting elbowed in the nose by Bryant, Vlade Divac taking what should have been a charge on Horry, since he was outside the circle under the hoop). So if the Kings and/or their fans feel like going that way, they can cry until the cowbells come home.

“Seems like the schedule of this series is the same,” said Adelman, getting ready for his next last stand. “They’ve got to win four. So if they beat us once, it’s not over.

“We know they’re a very good road team. I mean, they’ve beaten us here.... I think we woke them up a couple years ago [in the 2000 playoffs] with a couple wins here. Since then, they’ve been very difficult on us.”

Very difficult?

They ought to paint a sign on the side of the Lakers’ bus: “Dreams crushed here.”