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Lakers topple Kings 115-99
When the Lakers were dismantled last summer, the Sacramento Kings thought their biggest rivalry was finished.
Turns out Kobe Bryant and his new teammates are ready to start it up again.
Brian Cook hit four of the Lakers' 12 3-pointers in perhaps their best game of the season. In a building where Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal enjoyed some of their greatest playoff triumphs during the last six seasons, the new Lakers handed Sacramento its worst home loss since a 116-95 loss to San Antonio on March 2, 1998.
Chris Webber and Bobby Jackson scored 20 points apiece for the Kings, whose starters spent the final five minutes sitting on the bench in humiliated indignation.
Sacramento was exposed in just its second home loss of the season, with Los Angeles outscoring the Kings 37-22 in the third quarter of a game that wasn't even as close as the final score. Brad Miller managed just six points in 38 minutes, and Peja Stojakovic was ineffective despite getting 16 points.
From the cultural poles of California, Los Angeles and Sacramento battled atop the Pacific Division standings for the better part of a decade, trading verbal jabs and actual punches along with baskets in countless memorable games and playoff series.
But after the Lakers were revamped in the offseason to defuse the growing feud between Shaq and Kobe, Webber pronounced one of the NBA's better rivalries dead — even though Vlade Divac, perhaps the most beloved player in Sacramento's renaissance, defected back to Los Angeles for a $4.9 million contract.
Webber's prediction seems a bit premature. Sacramento pulled out an entertaining 109-106 victory at Staples Center last month — and in the rematch, the Lakers handed the Kings their most embarrassing home defeat during coach Rick Adelman's seven seasons.
Bryant was greeted with his usual showers of boos at Arco Arena, and the Kings went after him with double-teams. He still showed brilliance: a two-handed reverse dunk, an awkward scoop shot while being fouled and a four-point play in the third quarter, hitting a 3-pointer while Doug Christie fouled him on the elbow.
Bryant scored 16 points in the third as the Lakers made 68 percent of their shots.
The Lakers exploited the biggest flaws in the Kings' defense: poor rotation to open shooters and an utter inability to stop dribble penetration. Odom blew by Webber atop the key on several possessions, while Tierre Brown, Chucky Atkins and the rest of the Lakers' guards drove the lane almost at will.
Brown scored 13 points in the fourth, and Adelman pulled all of his starters with a 20-point deficit and nearly five minutes still to play.
Divac has been a disappointment in Los Angeles, struggling with a back injury and playing no significant minutes this season. He got a warm ovation when he entered the game late in the first quarter, but played just three minutes. |
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