Until only one mystery remained:

How the Sacramento Kings, the best team in the NBA and the HMO, have gone through so many injuries that they've run out of original ideas, and not a broken ear drum in the bunch. Amazing.

All that noise inside Arco Arena, all that loud buzz around the league about breaking to the great start despite occasionally needing to interrupt their emergency room to play a game, and they hear just fine. They catch all the praise. They get it that those are loud footsteps from the Portland Trail Blazers, keeping things interesting in the Pacific Divison after all.

	Chris Webber, left, is the latest to join the Kings' M*A*S*H unit on the bench.

Otherwise, prime-time TV has itself another medical series, with the occasional weekend afternoon specials. The Kings go national again tonight -- someone get Dr. Jack, stat! -- when the Lakers hit Sacramento for the first time since that heart removal without anaesthesia better known as Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, and they're down three big men just in time to face Shaquille O'Neal. Just in case things weren't interesting enough in the rivalry.

The three-time defending champions already know how this injury thing can go with the Kings. Sacramento surged to an early lead in the Pacific without starting point guard Mike Bibby and key reserve big man Scot Pollard for long stretches, playing with composure and cohesiveness in the face of adversity, then rallied to win the Christmas showdown at Staples Center, the very evening the great start by Bobby Jackson was ended by a broken hand. So it is that tonight the Kings have the chance to guarantee at least a split in the regular-season series for the first time in a full campaign, discounting the lockout-shortened 1999 season, since 1993-94.

Sacramento has gone virtually the entire way at less than full strength, and only everyone else keeps getting messed up. The Lakers went down after building a lead. The Mavericks, the team with the best record, got routed a couple weeks ago at Arco and immediately stepped aside, conceding the Kings as the real best team. The Nets have already been swept in the season series.

So impressive has Sacramento been in breaking everything but stride that it is even wreaking havoc on the All-Star team. The sprained ankle that will keep Chris Webber out at least two weeks, and probably longer since the Kings will be especially conservative in targeting a return date given his bad history with that joint, will also keep him on the sideline next weekend at Atlanta, meaning they would not have had an on-court representative to join coach Rick Adelman. It was an obvious problem for commissioner David Stern in deciding on a replacement for Webber: deserving player or deserving team.

Stern went for deserving team. Peja Stojakovic --18 points a game, 46.4 percent overall from the field, 38.8 percent on threes, respectable numbers all -- wasn't nearly as worthy as Elton Brand, among others, for an addition at Western Conference forward. But a showcase event without anyone in uniform from one of the showcase clubs was a bad mix, and not an impossible sell since Stojakovic is still a feared shooter.

Now Stern knows how Adelman has been feeling all season. Bibby. Pollard. Webber. Jackson. Hedo Turkoglu. Stojakovic. Pollard again. Not only that, but Webber and Pollard, the starting power forward and one of the best backup center-power forwards in the game, respectively, on the same Tuesday night this week against the Jazz. Pollard broke his hand and Webber sprained his ankle, with another reserve big man, Lawrence Funderburke, already out. The Kings' injured list is the only thing regularly filled to capacity in Sacramento more than Arco Arena. Jerry Sloan was so beside himself at Utah's sudden good fortune that he high-fived a ref in the chest.

That they scored eight points in the second quarter that night and lost their third game in a row, with a tough stretch ahead, only compounded worries. But then they remembered how to play defense, a lost art during the losing streak, and won big Thursday at Seattle against an opponent that causes trouble for the Kings even at full strength, leading to the Lakers' visit to Arco. That meant most people around Sacramento forgot there was such a thing as other teams in the NBA -- something about needing all the time possible to ask Phil Jackson to be a pal and hold their cowbells where no one would be able to get at them.

	“	I told the team, 'You have three things that are happening right now. First, we haven't played very well the last few games. We have more injuries, and we have a tough schedule. But what are you going to do about it? You have to go out and compete. You've got to play and try to win games until we get people back.' That's the challenge. Guys have to step up. ”
		— Rick Adelman

"It's a real challenge," Adelman said. "I told the team, 'You have three things that are happening right now. First, we haven't played very well the last few games. We have more injuries, and we have a tough schedule. But what are you going to do about it? You have to go out and compete. You've got to play and try to win games until we get people back.' That's the challenge. Guys have to step up."

Guys will.

Setting an immediate tone, or continuing it, Turkoglu started against the SuperSonics and had 22 points and five rebounds, a disappointing showing on the boards for a power forward except that Stojakovic contributed 14 rebounds at small forward. Swingman Jim Jackson had seven more in 24 minutes, while also making nine of 12 shots and scoring 21 points. Even against an opponent in mid-fade, it was a most encouraging showing.

"We're playing a lot tougher teams, and I'm just concerned that our psyche, if (we) lose a few games in a row and we're not used to it, how are we going to respond to that?" Adelman said. "You saw what's happened to the Lakers. Once it goes the other direction in a long season, sometimes it's hard to get it back. That's why I'm challenging these guys. We've got to go win. There are no excuses right now."

Only the Trail Blazers, close behind, and the Lakers, right in front of them for tonight. After that, Sacramento has a challenging stretch of three games in four nights -- at Houston, day off, at Dallas, at New Orleans -- at which point Adelman gets much-deserved national attention as the All-Star coach and every other coach in the West hopes he doesn't get their players hurt, too. The post-break schedule brings the relative relief of getting the Wizards, SuperSonics, Bucks and Knicks within the first six outings, except that Portland could keep the pressure on by waiting until later in the season to implode, and the Lakers are slowly turning the big lumbering boat back toward the playoffs. The Lakers will be in.

But everyone is still chasing the Kings, picked apart or not. They're the best team through the first half of the season even without having their best team, which is what makes the first fortysomething games more impressive and the potential all the more real because playing through adversity proves they have the guts that were lacking in postseasons past. No mystery there.

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