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 GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The real Los Angeles Lakers returned to form, and the upset-minded Sacramento Kings never stood a chance.
|  | | Shaquille O'Neal pulls down one of his 18 rebounds. |
Looking every bit like championship material after a two-game
fling with self-doubt and mediocrity, the Lakers got a dominant
game from Shaquille O'Neal and turned it into a laugher early in the third quarter Friday night. They steamrolled the Kings 113-86
in the deciding game of the best-of-five first-round series.
"We knew if we didn't bring our 'A' game, we were going to make history tonight," O'Neal said. "And we didn't want to make history."
With their fans in a mini-panic and the rest of the contending
teams salivating over the prospect of a road to the finals that
wouldn't go through Los Angeles, the Lakers quickly brought
everybody back to reality.
O'Neal outrebounded the entire Sacramento team in the first half
and finished with 32 points and 18 rebounds, while the rest of the
team contributed steady offensive production and superb defense.
Shortly after halftime, it was abundantly clear that the Lakers
would pass their first tough test of character with ease.
So lopsided was it that O'Neal and Kobe Bryant sat out almost the entire fourth quarter, giving the team's two best players some unexpected extra rest to carry into their second-round series
against the Phoenix Suns beginning Sunday.
"I don't care when it had to happen, but I've been talking all
year about how we needed a trial by fire," coach Phil Jackson
said. "Certainly a team has to have that at some point to develop
the mettle and grit and to be able to sustain the poise, direction
and intensity.
"They gave us a lot of push, and we needed that as a basketball team if we're going to advance," Jackson said.
Bryant finished with 17 points, Glen Rice had 14 and the other
members of the team _ A.C. Green, Robert Horry, Derek Fisher -- who
had been playing poorly or not at all in Games 3 and 4 provided
plenty of support. Green finished with 10, and Horry and Fisher had
eight apiece.
The Kings, meanwhile, who shocked everyone but themselves by
tying the series with a pair of home victories, were borderline
pathetic.
Getting little from anyone other than Chris Webber, who seemed to be trying to carry his team by himself, the Kings were
outrebounded 14-12 by O'Neal in the first half and 54-35 overall.
Webber finished with 20, but the rest of Sacramento's starters
shot a combined 7-for-22. Vlade Divac scored just four, Nick
Anderson had three and Corliss Williamson eight -- six of which came
late in garbage time.
"There are no excuses for how we played tonight," Webber said. "It's just a sick feeling in my stomach right now. It's hard to decipher what happened."
The Kings fell behind by 35 less than two minutes into the
fourth quarter after consecutive dunks by Horry and O'Neal. They
never really gave themselves a chance to pull off what would have
been one of the biggest upsets in league history by becoming just
the third eighth-seeded team to knock off a No. 1 seed.
Right from the outset the Lakers played with the kind of
calmness that Jackson had counseled, and it took less than 10
minutes for them to open a double-digit lead.
O'Neal made his first five shots, Bryant made two of his first
three and it was 25-14 before Sacramento coach Rick Adelman went to
his bench. But unlike in Games 3 and 4 when the Kings' reserves
dominated their Lakers counterparts, this time it was Los Angeles
that got a boost from its backups.
Fisher, who didn't even get off the bench in Game 4, went
4-for-4 from the field, and Horry was 3-for-4 before the half. And
although the Kings got the deficit down to 10 on a steal by Webber
leading to a fast-break 3-pointer by Predrag Stojakovic, the Lakers
didn't let Sacramento turn it into a sustained run.
Bryant blocked Divac's 3-point attempt just before the buzzer,
and the Lakers went to the locker room with a 59-44 lead behind 20
points and 14 rebounds from O'Neal.
The Lakers came out hot in the third quarter and Divac quickly
picked up a technical foul -- Sacramento's fourth -- when a call went
against him less than two minutes in. You could almost see the
Kings quit right then and there, and it only got worse for them the
rest of the way.
O'Neal was 0-for-4 from the foul line when he went there midway
through the third with the crowd chanting "M-V-P, M-V-P" and
calmly sank both for an 80-57 lead with 3:32 left.
Jackson emptied his bench with 10 minutes remaining in the
fourth, and the early exiting locals started streaming toward the
parking lots with more than six minutes left.
"We knew it was going to be tough for anybody to beat us three
games in a row, especially on our home court." Bryant said. "This
is what we played all year for."
Game notes
Among the celebrities in the crowd were Jack Nicholson and
David Spade, who sat courtside in the first row, and Dustin
Hoffman, Salma Hayek and Penny Marshall. ... Sacramento hasn't won
a playoff series since 1981.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Sacramento Clubhouse
LA Lakers Clubhouse
RECAPS
Utah 96
Seattle 93
AUDIO/VIDEO
 It was trial by fire for Phil Jackson and the Lakers.
wav: 141 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Its a terrible feeling for Chris Webber.
wav: 110 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Home court was definitely an advantage for Derek Fisher and the Lakers in Game 5.
wav: 116 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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