Gentry Calls Kings the Best

Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry proclaimed the Sacramento Kings “probably the best team in the NBA when you see what they did last week against New Jersey and Dallas.” And that was before the teams played Saturday at Staples Center.

“Sac is a great, great team,” Gentry said of the Pacific Division-leading Kings. “They have a new confidence about them. It’s not really cockiness. They have tremendous chemistry. They have a confidence about them that wasn’t there last year. I think they feel they can really beat the Lakers this year.”

The Lakers defeated the Kings in the Western Conference final last season, a springboard to their third consecutive NBA championship.

Gentry wasn’t quite willing to hand over the title to the Kings.

“I still say somebody is going to have to go through the Lakers to get where they want to go,” he said. “The Lakers probably aren’t going to have home-court advantage, but people forget that last year they were the fourth seed.”

Gentry also marveled at the concentration of King power forward Chris Webber, facing a new indictment for lying to a federal grand jury in Michigan and obstructing justice in a case centering on gifts and money given to him by a University of Michigan booster.

“He’s matured tremendously,” Gentry said. “To me, he’s playing a lot more under control this year. When dealing with a grand jury that’s no small task.”

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Next: The Clippers play five consecutive games on the road, starting with Monday’s “away” game against the Lakers at Staples Center. They play the Utah Jazz, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers before returning home to play host to the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns before hitting the road again. A trip to Toronto, New York and Detroit takes them to the All-Star break.