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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Suns are rising, the Kings are falling, and
they could face each other in the first round of the playoffs.
Shawn Marion had 16 points and tied his career-high with 19
rebounds as Phoenix beat Sacramento 88-86 Sunday night, knocking
the Kings out of first place in the Pacific Division.
|  | | Phoenix's Jason Kidd sails past Sacramento's Vlade Divac as he looks for an open man to make the pass.
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Jason Kidd added 20 points and 14 assists and Rodney Rogers
scored 20 as the Suns climbed a half-game ahead of Portland into
sixth place in the Western Conference playoff race.
Cliff Robinson scored 17 for the Suns in what might well have
been a preview of a first-round playoff matchup.
Chris Webber scored 22, but none in the fourth quarter for the
Kings, who fell a half-game behind the Los Angeles Lakers in the
Pacific. Webber missed all three of his fourth-quarter shots,
including a short hook in traffic that would have tied the game
with less than a second to play.
He didn't have much to say afterward.
"I don't know, I don't know," Webber said. "It just hurts too
much."
Webber scored just four points in the second half, and spent
much of the time complaining to the officials.
"They did so much crying, I thought," Robinson said. "An MVP
candidate, you'd think they'd just play and not cry so much."
Tony Delk grabbed the rebound of Webber's miss, and Phoenix had
its eighth consecutive home victory.
Doug Christie scored 20 and Vlade Divac 17 for Sacramento.
Predrag Stojakovic scored 15, including two 3-pointers that kept
the Kings close in the final 2:36.
Because the Lakers hold the tiebreaker over Sacramento, Los
Angeles can clinch the division title with a home victory over
Denver in their season finale Tuesday night.
Sacramento has two games remaining -- at home against Vancouver
and at Denver.
"Whatever the Lakers did, we had to win and we didn't do it,"
Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said. "Now they've got destiny in
their hands."
Phoenix, one game behind Dallas for the No. 5 spot, has two to
play -- at the Los Angeles Clippers and at home against Utah.
Delk had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns.
The teams traded the lead four times in the fourth quarter
before the Suns scored eight in a row, four by Kidd, to go up 85-78
with 2:57 to play. Marion blocked two shots and Tony Delk one in
the run.
Kidd's 3-pointer made it 88-81 with 2:10 to play.
But Stojakovic, as he has done so often this season, shot
Sacramento back into it. His 3-pointer with 2:36 remaining sliced
the lead to 85-81, and he hit another with 47.4 seconds to go to
cut it to 88-86.
Kidd missed a short jumper, but Robinson tapped the ball back to
Rogers, the last of the Suns' 20 offensive rebounds. But Marion
threw up a wild shot, and the Kings got the ball one last time.
After a timeout, Sacramento got the ball inside to Webber, but
the defense collapsed and contested the shot.
The Suns became the seventh team in the West to win 50, the
first time so many have reached that mark.
The Kings also committed a season-high 22 turnovers. Phoenix had
20 second-chance points and 20 turnovers.
"We're going on a nice little stretch right now," said Suns
coach Scott Skiles, whose team blew a 26-point lead the last time
Sacramento came to town. "We've had several games where we've
really been active on the offensive boards. It seemed like in the
second half, when they closed the gap, we got a key offensive
rebound or tip-in.
"We shot 39 percent and only shot six free throws and still
won."
Christie tried to be philosophical about the Kings' fading
chances for the division title after defeats at Dallas and Phoenix.
"You can't get too high, you can't get too low," he said. "I
think that might be the motto to go by. Once the season is over,
regardless of conference title or anything, it's zero-zero, and
it's up for grabs."
Kidd and Mario Elie each sank a 3-pointer in a 10-0 surge that
put Phoenix up 63-49 on Marion's breakaway stuff with 6:41 left in
the third.
The Kings took their first lead since early in the second
quarter, 76-75, on Bobby Jackson's reverse layup on a baseline
drive with 8:04 to play.
Game notes
Rogers scored 14 of his 20 in the first half. ... The Suns
were without center Jake Tsakalidis for the second consecutive game because of a strained left arch. ... Sacramento won the season
series 3-1. ... Phoenix has won eight in a row at home. ... The
Suns won 50 games for the 10th time in the last 13 seasons. ...
Skiles and Rogers each drew technical fouls in
the third quarter. .. The Kings' Jason Williams was scoreless and
took only three shots in 22 minutes.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Sacramento Clubhouse
Phoenix Clubhouse
Lakers frustrate the Blazers, take over first in Pacific
RECAPS
Philadelphia 89
New York 82
Boston 95
New Jersey 88
Cleveland 106
Washington 98
Orlando 90
Miami 73
Indiana 93
Chicago 86
Minnesota 107
Utah 100
Phoenix 88
Sacramento 86
LA Lakers 105
Portland 100
Charlotte 99
Detroit 90
Dallas 107
Seattle 99
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