Stojakovic Will Sit Out Game 4

King Coach Rick Adelman on Friday ruled out playing Peja Stojakovic, an All-Star swingman, in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

Stojakovic has been sidelined since spraining his right ankle May 9, during Game 3 of the Kings’ 4-1 series victory over the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals. He shot jump shots and did some light jogging Friday.

“I’m feeling better,” he said. “I can’t say when I can play. It won’t be until I can go on the floor and have a hard practice. Today, I tried to run up and down. It’s still stiff. It’s tight.”

Stojakovic said Friday he believed the injury was more than a simple sprain. He also sprained his left ankle severely during a summer league three years ago.

Stojakovic averaged 18.3 points in seven playoff games before he was injured. Hedo Turkoglu, his replacement at small forward, was averaging 6.5 points in the playoffs before Friday. He was averaging four points on four-for-16 shooting in the first two games of this series.

Adelman has been tempted to start energetic guard Bobby Jackson in place of the struggling Turkoglu, but has so far resisted doing it because it would create matchup problems for the Kings against the taller Laker guards, including Kobe Bryant.

Jackson has been content to play a reserve role, scoring 21 points in 25 minutes in Game 1 and 17 points in 23 minutes in Game 2. Of not starting, Jackson said, “I’m OK with it. My role is to come in and bust my [rear end] and make something happen.”

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Adelman grew up in Lynwood, went to high school at Pius X in Downey and attended Loyola Marymount. He was a Laker fan, watching Jerry West and Elgin Baylor practice at Loyola.

“Jerry West was my idol,” said Adelman, the most valuable player of the West Coast Conference as a senior in 1967-68.

Like any other Laker fan old enough to remember the series, Adelman recalled with a trace of bitterness the team’s loss in Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at the Forum.

“[Owner Jack Kent] Cooke had all the balloons ready to be released from the ceiling,” he said, referring to part of a championship celebration that never took place for the Lakers and their long-suffering fans. “Everybody thought they were going to win. I was a fan of that [Laker team]. I’m not sure I’m a fan of this one.”

Adelman and the Kings engaged Phil Jackson and the Lakers in a war of words over all manner of subjects, including the officiating, during the three days between Games 2 and 3.