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Quiet Kings Lakers lockdown Sacramento bench
Posted: Saturday April 29, 2000 05:59 PM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The self-proclaimed Bench Mob, who sparked the Sacramento offense and rallied the Kings to many victories this season, has been silenced in the playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers. Though the Kings' reserves have outscored their counterparts on the Lakers in both games of the first-round series, they have failed to provide much of a lift to a struggling Sacramento offense as Los Angeles has taken a 2-0 lead. Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Sunday at Sacramento. The Bench Mob outscored opponents' reserves 51 times in 82 games this season, and even outscored the Kings' starters in eight games. Sacramento reserves scored a third of the team's points in the regular season, averaging 35 points per game. Though backup guard Tony Delk had 17 points as the Kings' bench outscored the Lakers' reserves 32-17 in Game 1, the reserves failed to spark the big run Sacramento needed. A 10-0 run late in the game that brought the Kings within six points came only after coach Rick Adelman reinserted four starters. In Game 2, 18 of the Bench Mob's 32 points came in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided. When the Lakers made a decisive 13-2 run to end the second quarter, three Kings reserves were on the court. Adelman said the long breaks between games in the series have allowed the Lakers to carefully prepare for members of the Bench Mob, especially sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic -- who averaged 11.9 points this season but has been held to three points in each of the first two games against Los Angeles. "I just feel the Lakers have taken a lot of things away from us," Adelman said. "They don't leave Peja at all. They really have manhandled him and stayed with him at all times. They're much more prepared because of the time off." Jon Barry, the reserve who created the Bench Mob nickname and has been its leader all season, said the Kings -- who lost seven of eight to finish the regular season -- have lacked intensity in the first two games of the playoff series. "I think our confidence level has been shaken. We haven't played a good game in a long time," Barry said. "We haven't been the same team we were during the regular season." The Kings headed into the playoffs last season on a hot streak, and forced Utah to five games in an intense first-round playoff series. This season, the Kings fell into the eighth spot in the Western Conference -- forcing them to face the Lakers in the first round -- by losing at home to Seattle in the next-to-last game of the year. "Now that I look back, we won 10 of 11 last year coming into the playoffs and we were really on a roll. I really didn't think that mattered, but now I think it does," Barry said. "I don't think our intensity has been there, the focus hasn't been the same as our series last year against Utah." Scot Pollard, another Bench Mob member, agreed that Sacramento has not been able to match the aggressiveness and enthusiasm it had during the regular season. "I do feel we may be a little bit tight," Pollard said. "We just need to go out and have a good time, because that's when we play best." While the Bench Mob will try to provide a spark Sunday, the starters will try to figure out how to contain Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. O'Neal had 46 points in Game 1. When the Kings focused on him in Game 2, Bryant responded with 32 points. "I don't have to score 50 points every night. Scoring 50 points every night is a job," O'Neal said. "I like being a role player. I like getting rebounds, blocking shots, scoring when I've got the opportunity."
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