Everything is going right in the season when everything is going wrong.

Just look at this mess. A bruised knee, a sprained wrist, a stress fracture in the lower back, food poisoning, a stress fracture in the foot, a sore arch. The broken record.

	The Kings started 21-6 without Mike Bibby.

Injuries and wins.

Injuries and wins.

Injuries and wins.

Onward they go, either because the wheelchairs didn't come with brakes or, more likely, because the Sacramento Kings have officially, once and for all, completed the transition. The fun bunch -- high-scoring and making high-wire passes -- has turned gritty.

There was some of that in 2001-02, of course, when they started 15-5 without Chris Webber and celebrated their crescendo moment with the heart and resiliency of the Game 4 overtime at Dallas during the conference semifinals, coming from 12 points down in the fourth quarter with Peja Stojakovic out with an injury and Webber on the bench the final 9:45 after fouling out. But there were also nine starting lineups in the last regular season. There already have been 10 this season.

Toronto laughs at that, when it isn't crying. Dallas isn't terribly impressed either, having rocketed from the gate mostly without the injured Raef LaFrentz and Nick Van Exel, although more recently the Mavericks have continued at a successful rate without the healthy LaFrentz. The Kings, however, have gone almost the entire way without ever being the Kings.

No Sacramento player has been in every game. The asterisk is that the only two misses for Doug Christie, the starting shooting guard, came from not missing with that preseason uppercut to Rick Fox. Meanwhile, Mike Bibby had 27 nights watching because of a bad foot, Scot Pollard is at 32 and counting because of a bad back and Stojakovic sat for 10 because of a bad arch.

A start. That's all it has been. The defending champions are reeling, but they still haven't been dethroned when it matters, in the playoffs. Yet, that it would be a very encouraging start at 26-9 heading into the big East-West showdown Thursday night at New Jersey means it has been beyond their wildest expectations amid another underrated job by coach Rick Adelman, because no one ever said anything about the roster spending the first three months living on the San Andreas Fault.

It's impossible to know for sure when this will end, the wins and the injuries. Bobby Jackson is scheduled to miss at least another month because of a fractured hand, and there is no timetable for Pollard, who, only this week, has been given clearance to work on the treadmill. That's the two top reserves. Sacramento, in the meantime, has won three in a row and five of six. That's the point.

The schedule has helped lately. Consecutive losses to the Spurs and Suns were followed by Golden State, a Christmas game against the Lakers, the Trail Blazers, the Nuggets, the Heat without Eddie Jones and Travis Best and the Bucks without Sam Cassell. The only loss was to Portland, part of its eight-game winning streak. Otherwise, the Kings did what they needed to do, at times taking care of business and at times looking impressive in the process, like in holding Denver, Miami and Milwaukee to less than 80 points each. That's no great accomplishment given the various degrees of crisis for the opponents, but there's something to be said for doing the expected in a season of the unexpected.

Especially since it's these Kings. Those were the same games they would have struggled with in seasons past, when playing down to the level of the competition was painfully common, even in victory. There are even greater signs, in neon lights and everything, about the killer instinct that has emerged, and that the signal came in the most unlikely of times is what made it mean the most.

	KINGS' MISSING LINKS
	Player	Injury	Gms Missed
	Mike Bibby	Foot	27 games
	Bobby Jackson	Hand	4 games
	Scot Pollard	Back	32 games
	Peja Stojakovic	Foot	10 games
	Hedo Turkoglu	Wrist	6 games
	Chris Webber	Knee	2 games

Sacramento had just beaten the Lakers, coming from behind to win on the road. It was worthwhile even if it was against an opponent on pace for the lottery since it was against the opponent. A good moment, emotionally satisfying, yada yada yada.

And then someone asked Webber about the outcome.

"They still have the championship rings," he said. "We got the Christmas-game bragging rights, but what does that really mean right now? We've had the fun wins before, but we want an NBA championship."

Webber had 25 points, 15 rebounds and six assists, but what should be remembered is what came after, when he delivered perspective. Congratulations, the Kings won the Dec. 25 title. Except that it's the one in June that matters.

It was an encouraging step, though, what with Sacramento not wanting to waste any chance to prove they can beat the Lakers, and especially doing it while rallying in a way that could further deflate L.A. Even better that it came with the backdrop of national television. Yeah, and didn't some Kings really try hard not to rub it in.

"It's much harder to play the Clippers," Vlade Divac said.

Not stopping there, the Kings moved right to boasting about riding L.A. to profit. Shaquille O'Neal called them the Queens during the summer-long, post-playoff fallout. So the sex change went on the market.

"I made money on that," Sacramento co-owner Joe Maloof boasted. "I thought it was so funny, and I wasn't going to let Shaq have the last laugh. So we made some jerseys and shirts that read 'Sacramento Queens' for our team store. They're not our best sellers, but it's been worth it."

The Kings turning bad into good. What a concept.

Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.