Maybe the Kings Simply Exposed the Implosion

Well, that was educational, wasn’t it?

For months, everyone was wondering if the Lakers would blow up after the playoffs. Now everyone is wondering if the Lakers will blow up before the playoffs.

A lot of mettle was tested Sunday. The Sacramento Kings passed and the Lakers took a pass.

The Kings, who’d been rolling and tumbling for weeks, pulled themselves together. Meanwhile, the Lakers pulled a no-show, a very bad sign in a game with so much significance.

Said the Kings’ Brad Miller: “They looked like they were just, ‘Oh well, we’ll get ‘em in the playoffs.’ ”

Off Sunday’s performance, it would take a miracle on the order of the loaves and fishes for the Lakers to get out of the first round, which will be necessary if they hope to see the Kings again.

While Shaquille O’Neal was taking five rebounds in 31 minutes and Kobe Bryant was taking one shot in the first half, Chris Webber, the King whose world was caving in, propped the sky back up with a performance as in days of yore, 25 points, 12 rebounds and five assists worth.

“I probably should make this declaration,” King Coach Rick Adelman said afterward. “I think I’m going to leave him in the rotation and I’m probably going to start him the next game, regardless of other opinions.”

The Kings had stumbled since Webber’s return, losing nine of 15 and a 3 1/2-game lead in the West, toppling into second place last week and looking at a drop all the way to No. 4 with a loss Sunday.

Who, them shaken?

Adelman said he asked his players before Friday’s game in Phoenix, “What are you made of?”

They lost that one to a Suns team that came in 26-52.

“We’ve got to find a way to get our confidence back,” Adelman said before Sunday’s game. “If you win a game today, that can be a big boost for us....

“If you lose today, it’s another setback and you’ve got to go on the road tomorrow and play Denver, so it’s going to test our mettle.”

Of course, on the streets, it was every man for himself.

The Sacramento Bee’s Ailene Voisin recommended benching Webber. Insiders said Webber wasn’t the same and speculated that the team would be open to trading him, although with his salary and his knee, it was probably stuck with him.

Then there were the fans, who were beside themselves.

“This is small town,” said Vlade Divac, King star and local restaurateur. “Everyone knows everything. They’re real fans, they want to know how long you practice, what you did to prepare yourself. They want to know everything. And when things happening, you know, they address things....

“I keep telling them, ‘Don’t worry guys, we’ll be fine.’

Of course, the Lakers didn’t turn out to be quite the test they figured to be.

In a sign of things to come, Divac dunked on a pass from Doug Christie on the second possession.

On the third, Divac went through O’Neal, who had inside position, and scored on a rebound. The 350-pound O’Neal is supposed to go through the 35-year-old Divac, not vice versa.

On the fourth possession, Webber, accused of being loath to pass to Peja Stojakovic, passed to Stojakovic, who made a three-pointer.

On the fifth possession, Webber sank an 18-footer, making it Kings 8, Lakers 0.

This was a little early for the game to be over but the lead held up.

“You know, I just went out like I’m going to have fun,” Webber said afterward. “You know, you really can’t control [criticism] so I look back on past experiences good and bad and say I’m just going to come out and have fun.

“And you know, it’s funny, because almost every Laker came to me and said something about, ‘What’s going on out here?’

“So when players around the league know what time it is, that’s all you want, the respect of your peers.

“It’s cool. It’s something I really don’t think about anymore. But it was definitely a big game for me and for our team.”

It was definitely a memorable game for O’Neal and Bryant, whose combined 16 points were their second lowest in eight seasons together.

After Bryant set the Kings afire in their last meeting, Adelman took the rare precaution of sending a second defender whenever Bryant began dribbling or came off pick-and-rolls.

Bryant responded by passing the ball, which usually is seen as a good sign among the Lakers, until Sunday, when he completely disappeared.

Not that the Kings dreamed they’d have that level of success. “The problem with the game plan against him,’ said Adelman, “is sometimes he won’t cooperate.”

One more Laker loss or Sacramento victory and the Lakers will be looking at back-to-back series on the road in the West draw, the kind of grueling test that finished them off last spring.

Of course, this spring, it may not take as much to finish them off. Sunday, they were finished almost before they began.