No Need to Fear, Underdog’s Here

Chris Webber recognized it. Webber had just come in from the latest biggest victory in the Kings’ Sacramento history, and he was now at the far end of fielding question after question not so much about the grandeur of triumph, but about what it might ultimately take to get these Lakers behind them; and Webber knew.

“We’re still the underdog,” he said, flashing that Webberian smile.

Listen, it’s the only way to be.

What the Kings ought to know in their hearts right this minute are two terribly relevant things: (1) They can close out this L.A. team and win the Western Conference championship; and (2) Until they’ve done it, they’re not even close.

The champion isn’t vanquished until he is. And there isn’t a Gavin Maloof cross-court dance in the world that will change that.

That pulsating game at Arco Arena on Tuesday night, the one won by the Kings, 92-91, on Mike Bibby’s jumper and lost by the Lakers on Kobe Bryant’s no-Horry-for-you miss? That was undergraduate work--the best undergraduate work the Kings have ever delivered, no question, but undergrad all the same.

What seems unfathomable, but is absolutely true, is that the next step is infinitely more difficult, not just a little bit so. You could barely detect it through the hysteria at Arco, but it was there. Buried under the sonic boom of Bibby’s shot, perhaps, but there all the same.

What Bryant’s missed jumper over Bobby Jackson ensured is the most brutal test the Kings have ever faced as a team, which sounds like a ridiculous thing to say about the franchise that just took the 3-2 lead in the series and has the security blanket of a Game 7 at home.

But there you go, questioning life above the rim in the NBA. Congratulations! You’ve just run your first mile. And coming up next here on the How Bad Do You Want It Network: The starting line of that marathon, right over there.

“The way I look at it, everything’s on par,” said the Lakers’ Rick Fox, designated verbal swordsman in this series.

“If things go the way they’re supposed to go, we’ll be back here for a seventh game on Sunday.”

This isn’t exactly pathworn territory for the Lakers, who over the last three seasons have faced an elimination game only twice.

The last time was against Portland in the Western Conference finals of 2000, and that seventh game was played at Staples Center in L.A., not on the road, as this would be.

Still, on so many levels, it isn’t the point.

The point is that the Kings have played the Lakers into a position that probably feels a little uncomfortable on both sides--the Lakers dealing with the same reality the Kings had faced on Heartbreak Sunday in L.A., the Kings dealing with the enormity of what suddenly feels right in front of them.

And underdog is the way to go.