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SEPARATED AT BIRTH?
Scot Pollard
and
Master Clown Glen "Frosty" Little

(The Mob Thanks Kings.com for use of their E-Greetings Picture)
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THE SKY IS FALLING?

Fireplug

The sky may not have fallen, but there is definitely a huge black cloud up there now.

Let's take a closer look at the schedule. And I will be generous with the wins.

W - LA Clippers at home - I pity the team that must face us after this loss.
W - at Houston - Probable win.
W - at Charlotte - Should win, but 2nd of back to back
W - at Atlanta - They suck, we win
W - at Memphis - Could lose as emotions run high there.
L - at Detroit - good team, 2nd back to back on road, loss written all over this one
L - at Utah - I don't think they let us sweep, but who knows
W - NY - payback time
W - Minn - Kings gut this one out
W - at Golden State - Arco West 2?
L - at Clippers - history repeats and we lose here
W - Dallas - if we lose to Clips, we win here, and vise-versa
W - Golden State - No chance we lose this game

So adding it up, going in to the game against the Lakers we end up 59-22, a hell of a record. But what about those Lakers? In order for that last game not to matter, the Lakers must come into that game 57-24, two behind us in the standings. So that means over the next 12 games, the Lakers must lose 4 of them. That is a worse winning % then they have shown all year. Yes, there are tough teams left for them to play, but the Lakers have proven to be resilient too.

Cleveland
at Phoenix
Portland
San Antonio
at Washington
at New Jersey
at Boston
at Miami
Utah
Minnesota
at Portland
Seattle

Are there four guaranteed losses there. I wish we didn't have to find out. The season is just as much in the Lakers hands as it is ours.

By the way, had we won the game, we would have stood at 60-21 going into the last game, so the Lakers would have had to come into that game at 59-22 in order to have the CHANCE at the top seed by beating us. That means they could have lost only ONE MORE GAME to lose first place to us based on us losing 3 more till we play them. What an opportunity we missed. Big game? You bet.

Reno Lady

This was a terrific game! You have to give Shaq and Kobe credit for the way they played today. This is the best I've seen the Lakers play in 2 weeks and I don't care what Phil Jackson says, this game was VERY important to the Lakers, you could tell by his expressions and by the way the Lakers played. They wanted very much to beat the Kings at ARCO; now it's the Kings turn to beat the Lakers at Staples in April.

The Kings lost this game however, just as the Pistons lost the one Friday night, because the Lakers were certainly beatable again today. Even their vaunted defense wasn't that great. The Kings committed too many unforced turnovers and even the missed FTs would have given them the game. You can't blame Webber totally either because nearly everyone made some kind of dumb mistake in this game that hurt the Kings. If they hadn't made those mistakes there would have been no need for anyone to have to take a clutch shot.

Let's hope the Kings learned a couple of things today. First of all: They can play the Lakers well when they put their minds to it. It took everything the Lakers had to come up with a 1 point win. Secondly: If you want to be the champs you don't turn the ball over 20 times.

JB

Plenty of places to lay the blame for this loss. But the refs weren't one of them. I'm pretty pissed off at DC right now. 6 huge turnovers don't even begin to tell the story about his problems. The road to HCA just got a bit tougher.

Positive things:

Vlade played well against Shaq. I'm feeling a little better about the center matchup.

Still have Peja coming back.

I hate to sound like Jerry Reynolds, but that was the best effort that the Lakers have played in quite a while. The Kings on the other hand played poorly. I wouldn't think this one is going to get into the Kings heads. They know they can do better.

Last season, the Lakers marched into Arco and took the Kings out of everything they did. This game was nothing like that. When you lose by one, it comes down to the little things. Well, the Lakers didn't force some of the stupid mistakes - the Kings did.

I've got to hand it to Kobe. He had ice water in his veins. Did you catch that wink he gave Shaq when he fouled out of the game. That had me worried because you knew he was going to take over. With Shaq on the court, I don't think he does that.

SandB Bill

This was a team loss..

Give it up to Shaq today, he played a damn good game. The guy was great from the floor and hit his free throws.

The team made to many mental mistakes, and that cost them the game. This is a game that should of been won regardless if Peja was out. You only have to look back at that missed layup from Doug and say there is where we would of won it, or the Bobby Jackson miss layup, or if Webber, Bibby, Hedo or any of the others would of just made one more shot. My point is, this was a team loss. Lets give it up to the Lakers today, they came in and got what only a few teams before them were able to do, get a win at ARCO.

Now, its time to move on, our future is still in our hands, time for the guys to suck it up and move on.

Ken

I think it is a mental thing. It really is.

The Kings can definitely have played better. But don't we always say the same thing after losing to the Lakers? "The Kings didn't play their best... The Kings is very close to getting over the hump.... "

I am sure if it were another team we were playing today but even if they were playing at the same level, the Kings could have beat them easily. It seems to me it was mental down the stretch.

The Kings can beat everyone else's at their best, but not the Lakers. Not that they aren't good enough, but they mind can't treat the Lakers as "just another good team we can beat".

The offensive fluency, the toughness, the smart plays, and the smoothness simply were not there every time we play the Lakers. The players would say it is just another game, but I honestly don't think so. I do beleive the players all have this mental block in their head.

NEGATIVITY

TheBigO

Well, here's the source of mine.

The last game of the season matches the Kings against the Lakers in LA.

This was the Kings best shot today. Maybe a healthy Peja will help them win the final game, but my gut feeling is that that game will determine who wins the Pacific, and more than likely the West.

HCA means more to the Kings than any team. And while I still think the Kings can win that game, if it truly determines who

wins the Pacific and the Kings lose, it could be devestating.

This game was not just one of 82. It was a chance to make a statement. And the Kings almost made it. But almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Almost means nothing in basketball, unless you are a terrible team. Then you can call it a "moral" victory. The Kings gave those up in 99.

And I'm with you on this one JB, I am none to happy with a lot of the dumb stuff that Christie did today.

But as I said before the game, it wasn't the lack of Peja, Hido did a great job today, but the lack of somebody to fill in for Hido. Bobby Jackson had the Kings ONLY bench points. And the team only went 7 deep today.

kingme

I have no problem with Webber taking the last shot. even though he hadn't played well in the second half, he was coming back the last few minutes of the fourth. He has been playing well lately, in general, and i think he wanted so much to win this for his team. you could see he was devastated. My problem was the shot they gave him. that's not his best one. in fact, I can't remember the last time he made a baseline jumper. He's so versatile, they could have drawn up something else, IMO. Even made one more quick pass to let himget into a better position or cut to the basket. It was a good game only because it was close. I thought the Kings looked sloppy, and didn't smart. Yeah, and the short bench thing is rearing its ugly head. You cannot play a great team like the Lakers with only 7 players. this is what I meant when I said any injury to a key player would be so monumental. It exhausts the other guys who have to pick up the slack and they aren't used to playing extended minutes. Plus THEY in turn could get injured and we're left with ?

Another thing, Pollard hads been the Invisisble Man this year. He always gets caught too far under the basket to get good rebounding position and he used to be a better defender and even block a few shots once in awhile. Now, he's turnover-prone, can't make simple lay-ups/dunks, and doesn't have the inside presence that he used to. I say we dump him next season...

And Kobe is a killer. The man might as well be carrying around a loaded revolver...sheesh!

el donut

For the first time in a long while, Webber's 1st quarter play really impressed me, as did the entire team. For 12 minutes he exhibited the intensity, the warrior agression, the accuracy and the all-star qualities that other top players display in games. But, where in the hell did he disappear to during the other 3 quarters? I thought to myself that what we saw from the Kings in the first quarter is the level of play that would be necessary to prevail against the Lakers. In my heart, I knew that if they fell much off that pace, the Lakers would grind them down, as they indeed did. One quarter a game does not make.

And Christy. Christy, bless his hard playing heart, just comes up with some of the stupidest plays at critical times, mixed in with brilliant plays that, absent the brain farts, could really set him apart.

As sharp shooting as Hido was during Q one, his shooting really fell off after that, and so did Bibby's (although Bibby did come on a bit later in the game). It's like the whole team could only play at the championship level for 1.25 quarters and then they just stopped. Stopped passing the ball around, stopped the rough and tumble defense and defeated themselves. They weren't so much as beaten by the Lakers, as one poster said, they defeated themselves.

I hate to say this, but what you saw tonight is what you get. The Kings are a really good team, but they stop just short of the top tier. I don't see them beating the Lakers in LA. If they can't do it at home, most likely they can't do it, period.

My scathing commentary is in no way to be construed as an attack on the Kings, whom I wholeheartedly support. Rather, it is simply how I see it. Many years ago I rooted for a welter-weight boxer named Pete Ranzany. Pete could beat just about every fighter around. But when he fought Ray Leonard and Peppino Quavez for their respective titles, he got his butt whooped. Pete was an exciting Sacramento fighter to watch. He was reallly good. He just didn't have what it took to take it to the top level. Right now, that's how I feel about the Kings. Today's game was a defining moment--it was the left jab setting up the right cross KO punch. It was a jab that didn't reach the opponents chin. Frankly, 1 point or 15 points, a loss is a loss, and the Kings just couldn't rise to that next level. Sure hope they can pull a rabbit out of a hat and make that quantum leap, but I am doubtful.

There, now I feel a lot better.