Lakers Are Team Kings Hope to Be

The instructive moment was delivered by Don Nelson, which of course probably signals either the end of the world or something worse. Still, there spoke Nellie--but a week ago, actually--from a perspective that might be useful just now.

Nelson had watched his Dallas Mavericks fold in two straight home games against the Kings, watched the Mavs--so talented, so deep and so full of promise--lose twice on their own floor to a banged-up, limping Sacramento team that simply understood the drill a few points better each time.

He had, that is to say, caught a glimpse of a brighter future.

He just needed to look at a different color uniform in order to do it.

And when it was over, when the Kings had returned to Arco Arena and finished the job and sent themselves to the first Western Conference finals in their California history--when all of that was done, Don Nelson stood up and, without the slightest hint of surrender in his voice, said this:

“We have a lot of growing up to do to get to the level that the Kings are at ... [But] what a great experience for our team to go through.”

Lesson in a thimble: It is possible to be appreciative without being awed.

It is possible to admire the Lakers, just this minute, for what they are without being asked to give up your Feel the Roar T-shirt for all eternity.

It is possible to look at L.A. and see, for Sacramento, the final pieces of the championship puzzle--and sure, we’re only one game in on the conference finals. Sure, anything could happen the rest of the way, beginning with Game 2 tonight at Arco Arena.

This isn’t to suggest that the Kings won’t win at Arco, nor, given the Lakers’ quasi-indifferent play at home this postseason, that Sacramento can’t pick off a game at the Staples Center this coming weekend and make the true series of this that so many observers think it can be.

No one who saw the Kings go against Dallas, absent Peja Stojakovic but filled with role players swapping star turns, could seriously argue against any possible outcome here. That team, while in Texas, grew a half a year in three days.

The Kings, in so many of the obvious ways, are the team that other NBA entries wish they could become.

And so it must be all right to suggest that the Lakers, in so many of the subtle ways, are the team the Kings still hope to be.

It’s not about players. Oh, the Lakers have players. They’ve got Shaq and Kobe, a reasonably decent pair to draw to, and what you saw in Game 1 was a whole lot of O’Neal in the third quarter and a whole lot of Bryant in the fourth.

But the Kings have tremendous talent, even with Stojakovic in street clothes. It isn’t about players nearly so much as it is about faith.

The Sacramento locker room, after Saturday’s defeat, was full of guys who think they can win a tough playoff against a truly elite team.

The L.A. locker room?

Full of guys who already know they can, and who knew it a while ago.

It is possible to be appreciative of that mind-set without being awed. It is possible to understand that what the Lakers did in Game 1 was to seize the moment at precisely the point it was offered, making no assumptions about what might come next.