No excuses

Kobe, Shaq need help to keep three-peat train on track

LOS ANGELES -- This time, the Lakers can't blame it on the refs. Or a bad cheeseburger. Or Shaq's sore big toe.

This time the Lakers got beat. Bad. On their home floor.

Forget the respectable 103-90 final score. It was as cosmetic as the tight faces in the Staples Center celebrity row. Before a 38-point fourth-quarter explosion, the two-time defending champs were getting striped 75-52 and headed to one of the most embarassing blowouts in Lakers' history.

And this is a franchise that suffered through the Memorial Day Massacre, a 148-114 loss to Boston in the '85 Finals.

"We stumbled and fumbled around out there for three quarters," Lakers' coach Phil Jackson said.

Showing the poise of a champion, the Kings hit L.A. with a full-force assault from the opening tip and didn't let up.

Chris Webber and Mike Bibby worked the pick-and-roll to perfection. Vlade Divac pushed Shaquille O'Neal out from the basket. Doug Christie badgered Kobe Bryant and kept him from driving the lane.

Meanwhile the Lakers responded by kicking the ball around, rushing shots, and continuing to misfire from 3-point range. At one point, L.A. was 1-of-10 from downtown to run its streak of missed treys to a staggering 35 of 39 over a span of three games.

"They came in and missed a lot of early shots," Bibby said. "We got it going and set our offense. We kept running and attacking."

Unless Derek Fisher, Rick Fox and Robert Horry start hitting some perimeter shots, the Lakers are going to continue to struggle. They can only ride Shaq for so long. Divac is one of the few centers with the length and strength to battle the Lakers' giant down low, and he's getting great help from long-armed teammates like Webber, Christie and Hedo Turkoglu.

"They really crowded Shaq well and did not give him a good look in the lane," Jackson said. "He struggled to find a position in the lane all night."

Suddenly, those offensive foul calls don't seem like O'Neal's biggest headache.

Perhaps just as important, the Kings have gained a swagger.

After the Lakers had scored 14 consecutive points in their fourth-quarter flurry to pull within 87-75, Webber came down, stutter-stepped and calmly drilled a jumper to silence the crowd. As he ran downcourt, he mouthed the words "Shut up!" to courtside fans.

When Bibby followed moments later by weaving through three defenders and dropping in a wicked hanging layup, he too turned and looked at the crowd. Far from being done, the surging Kings are ahead 2-1 and brimming with confidence.

"We're just mentally different than we were two years ago or even last season," Kings coach Rick Adelman said.

Were the Lakers overconfident heading into the series?

They swear they weren't, and that they will bounce back strong in Game 4.

"We're not bored now," Bryant says.

After all, they say, it was just one game. And didn't that '85 squad that suffered the Memorial Day Massacre come back and win the next game en route to the NBA title? But if the Lakers are going to repeat the feat -- and keep alive their three-peat -- their role players are going to have to start making some shots.

Marty Burns covers pro basketball for CNNSI.com.Click here to send Marty a question or comment.

 

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