Webber and Kings Plan Return Trip

Chris Webber plans to return to Minneapolis this week, which means that he expects the Sacramento Kings to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves today in Game 6 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series.

A victory by the Kings at Arco Arena would send the best-of-seven series back to Minnesota for Game 7 Wednesday night. The Timberwolves lead the series, three games to two, after Friday night’s 86-74 victory at Minneapolis.

“Right after the game, I told the team, ‘We will be back here,’ ” Webber said late Friday before the Kings flew home. “We didn’t want to come back, but I’m telling my friends to make their reservations for when we play [Wednesday].”

Friday’s victory was the Timberwolves’ third in four games since they lost Game 1 at home. They overcame a 10-point deficit in the last four minutes to win Game 2, won in overtime after blowing a 15-point lead in Game 3 and were 3-0 in Arco Arena this season before losing Wednesday night in Game 4, 87-81.

Latrell Sprewell showed the way Friday night, making 13 of 21 shots and scoring 34 points, one short of his career playoff high.

“Spree, he was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” teammate Kevin Garnett said afterward. “He led the charge tonight. Everybody else just followed.”

The series has grown more combative as it has progressed.

In the last minute of the third quarter Friday, Brad Miller of the Kings took a low blow from Darrick Martin and reacted by knocking him to the floor and landing on him. Both players were ejected, an unfortunate turn of events for the visitors because Miller is far more valuable to the Kings than Martin is to the Timberwolves.

With Miller in the locker room, having exited with his middle fingers raised toward the crowd, the Timberwolves outrebounded the Kings in the fourth quarter, 17-10, and continued to build their lead, producing the series’ most lopsided result. Former Laker Mark Madsen took seven of his career-high 13 rebounds in the fourth quarter, six on the offensive end. Garnett pulled down six of his 12.

Martin, who has bounced around the NBA since playing at UCLA, said he was trying only to fight through a pick when he ran into Miller.

“He’s 6-11,” Martin said. “I’m 5-11. So me getting over a screen is going to be [contact] in his lower extremities....

“Anything I can do to help this team win is what I want to do.”

Miller called Martin a “chump.”

Chump or not, Martin plays for the team positioned to advance.

“We have to feel that this is it,” Garnett said of today’s game. “This is the momentum game right here. This is the biggest game of everybody’s career right here.”