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Tough enough Kings shake 'soft' label in winning Game 5Posted: Wednesday May 29, 2002 2:30 AMUpdated: Thursday May 30, 2002 2:03 AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It was an open jumper from the wing, the kind Kings forward Chris Webber loves to take. Instead of letting it fly, however, the Kings forward faked his defender in the air, then put his head down and drove to the basket. Foul on Shaquille O’Neal, his fourth. Later, Kings guard Mike Bibby saw a crack in the lane and drove right at the 7-foot-1 Lakers center, who barely grazed him. Foul on Shaq, his sixth. Other than Bibby’s game-winning 22-foot jumper, the biggest reason the Kings beat the Lakers in Game 5 on Tuesday was because they took the ball to the basket. Hard. All night. Shaking off their reputation as softies, the Kings' band of merry jump shooters went on a Shaq Attack, driving at the Lakers’ behemoth at every opportunity. They forced him to move his feet, play defense and bring his teammates to help. As a result, he and the rest of the Lakers picked up fouls -- some of them questionable perhaps, but fouls nonetheless. "That was our philosophy. Go at him," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "Make him try to defend. It’s hard to post him up. We moved the ball pretty well, and we got him to react to people coming at him." The Kings took advantage with a parade to the foul line in the first half and the chance to play the final minutes with O’Neal on the bench after he picked up his sixth foul with the score tied 85-85 and 3:22 to play. With Shaq (28 points, seven rebounds) no longer around to patrol the middle, the Kings were able to get inside for easy baskets and focus their defensive effort on stopping Kobe Bryant. The Lakers star missed five shots down the stretch, including a tough turnaround 20-footer at the buzzer. "Relief," said Kings center Vlade Divac, when asked what was his reaction to O’Neal fouling out. "Shaq is such a big player. He’s hard to stop. It was a real break for us." To the Lakers, the Kings' big break was that the refs made so many dubious calls against them. In addition to the touch foul on Bibby that got Shaq out of the game, Kings defender Bobby Jackson appeared to get away with a shove on Bryant from behind on the final play. "It really hurts when you get some questionable calls down the stretch," Lakers forward Robert Horry said. But as the old saying goes, the aggressive team gets the call. Especially at home. Maybe the Lakers should have considered the merits of home-court advantage when they were losing to the Bulls and Grizzlies during the regular season. The Kings, meanwhile, seem to be changing their reputation while putting L.A.’s three-peat hopes in peril. Going into the Western Conference finals, the one knock against Webber and the Kings was that they often played soft. Rather than get banged in the paint, they preferred to stay outside and shoot jumpers. "Y’all are gonna dog me the rest of my life," Webber says about the criticism. "I just want to win." Webber and the Kings proved it Tuesday night by taking it to the basket.
Marty Burns covers pro basketball for CNNSI.com.Click here to send Marty a question or comment.
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