Webber’s Return Fortifies Kings

They are unbeaten in three games against the Clippers this season, the last victory a 25-point blowout in Staples Center. They’ve put together the NBA’s best record as the season enters its final six weeks.

And now the Sacramento Kings are adding Chris Webber.

The five-time All-Star is expected to make his long-awaited season debut tonight when the Kings play the Clippers in Arco Arena.

His surgically repaired left knee sufficiently healed, he was taken off the injured list Feb. 16. Webber then served an eight-game suspension: five for violating the NBA’s drug policy and three for lying to a grand jury.

That left him to face the Clippers in his first game since May, when he suffered torn cartilage in his left knee during the second round of the playoffs.

What had been shaping up as just another stop on the road for the going-nowhere Clippers instead promises to be an emotional event for Webber and the Kings, who also are trying to lock down home-court advantage in the playoffs.

“It’s more fun,” Clipper forward Elton Brand said. “More lights, camera, action.”

More headaches too.

“They’ll be all juiced up,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said of the Kings, who haven’t lost at home to the Clippers in almost seven years. “And certainly he’s going to be playing really hard, trying to get his wind.”

The addition of Webber, who averaged 20 points and 6.8 rebounds against the Clippers last season, gives the Kings two All-Star power forwards. Newcomer Brad Miller, who has filled in seamlessly in Webber’s absence, was named to the Western Conference team last month.

Webber, Miller and Vlade Divac, virtually interchangeable, give the Kings a three-headed monster in the post. All are adept, and willing, passers.

“At one point, you used to get a rest,” Dunleavy said. “Now they have the ability to just rotate those three guys and, wow.

“That piece gives them a chance, I think, to beat a team like the Lakers, when [the Lakers] are playing at their best too, because you never get a break from defending against pick and rolls. Or Shaq never gets a break, basically.”

Ditto the Clippers.