Kings of Court? Certainly Not the Lakers

OK, how was that for a resounding thud?

In this glittering land where the only things ringing during basketball games are cell phones, the mighty Lakers, twice-defending champions of all they surveyed, took a great fall Friday night at the hands of the once-but-no-longer-lowly Kings.

In case you hadn’t noticed, things have changed.

This isn’t last season’s Laker team, or even the one from the season before.

To add to the Lakers’ predicament, these aren’t the Kings they swept, 4-0, last spring, or the ones who showed up here for a deciding Game 5 the season before, got three quick illegal defenses called against them and lost by a fast 27.

“It’s totally different,” said Coach Rick Adelman after Friday night’s 103-90 shocker. “We have a completely different team. We have different players. The mentality’s different....

“We knew they could beat us at Arco because they’d done it but we felt real strongly we could win here. We really did. We’d proved it to ourselves in the last half of the year. We proved it to ourselves in the first two rounds of the playoffs.”

Two years ago, the Kings had madcap rookie Jason Williams at the point, backed by almost-as-zany Jon Barry, so one hesitates to say they had any “mentality” at all.

Since, however, they have replaced the wild Williams with up-and-coming Mike Bibby; the fading Nick Anderson with the hard-working Doug Christie, and the high-strung Barry with tough Bobby Jackson.

People still look at them as the team of Chris Webber, who’s supposed to be soft, and Vlade Divac, whom some Utah fans once greeted by donning long blond wigs and fake beards, but people had better look again.

The Lakers, who are 4-1 away from Staples Center this postseason, are no longer the best road team in the playoffs.

That would be the Kings, who are 5-0, having won twice in Salt Lake City and twice in Dallas before Friday’s game.

The Kings also won 12 of their last 14 on the road in the regular season, and one of the losses was that season-ending game in L.A. they donated to the Lakers. That makes 17 victories in their last 19 road games.

“You play all year and you get the best record but that’s dismissed, people say you just win at home,” Kings’ player personnel director Jerry Reynolds said before the game. “You go on the road and win and they say, ‘Yeah, but it was Dallas.’

“I think what people tend to forget, this is a team. It truly is. We really have a good basketball team. Now, if you want to compare us to Shaq [O’Neal] and Kobe [Bryant], maybe you can’t do that, but we really have a lot of guys who are good players.

“We won 20 of 27 without Chris this season and nine of 11 without Peja [Stojakovic], two All-Stars.”

This was a standard Laker home game, except that Bryant had been knocked off stride by his illness and wasn’t there to bail them out until late.

O’Neal came out tentatively, as he has been doing all postseason. His teammates, who’d gone cold in Game 2, stayed cold in Game 3, and suddenly this didn’t look like the defending champions of anything. When the Big Two aren’t going, better not expect the Little 10 to carry the load.

Meanwhile, the Kings, allowed to establish themselves, started making shots, which is something they can do. Their starters played all 12 minutes in the first quarter and each of them shot at least 50%.

How was this for balance?

Webber had eight points; Hedo Turkoglu, alive again, had seven; Divac and Bibby had six and Christie had five.

O’Neal went to the bench with 1:22 left in the first quarter with two points, having missed three of four shots, and the Lakers trailing by 14.

He returned with 3:01 gone in the second quarter and the Lakers trailing by 21.

After that they tried to rally, which is difficult against a team on which everybody can handle the ball, pass and shoot, too.”Without looking forward, because it’s a long series and it’s not over, but it is a big night for our fans and for Kings supporters,” Webber said.

The Lakers could be in real trouble. It may have been unthinkable once, like six days ago, but it isn’t anymore.