SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- They won 61 games in the regular season, the best mark in the NBA. They have the league's loudest arena -- usually a mythical claim, but one they say was verified Saturday with a 112-decibel crowd-roar measurement. And they were fearless: The Kings said they wanted the Lakers, claiming that beating the defending champs was a rite of passage to earning their rings.

Yet when it came time to make an immediate impression, the Kings fell flat. When it came time to demonstrate their improved defense, the Kings initially were missing in action, offering little resistance in the first quarter when the Lakers were hitting nine straight shots. When it was over, the scoreboard showed it was the Lakers over the Kings, 106-99, with Los Angeles taking a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-seven series.

It took the Kings 19,755 regular-season minutes to gain home-court advantage. It took 12 minutes to see it vanish, as the Lakers led 36-22 after one quarter. Those 12 minutes might haunt this team a long time.

"They came out on fire and put us in a big hole," Kings guard Mike Bibby said. "We kept fighting and fighting, but we just couldn't get over that hump."

Once the Kings settled down, they were fine. They had more rebounds than the Lakers (47-41). They had more points in the paint (52-42). They had five players in double figures, and two guys with double-doubles (Chris Webber had 28 points and 14 rebounds, while Vlade Divac added 12 points and 11 boards). For a team that in the conference semifinals against the Spurs had won every game in the fourth quarter, the Lakers actually won this one in the first.

After Derek Fisher opened that quarter with a miss, the Lakers hit nine straight shots. Los Angeles ended the quarter hitting 16 of 24 (66.7 percent) and each starter made more than half his shots. No worry that the Lakers didn't close the game with their best ball: they had an answer for every Kings run. The result: the Lakers have now won 12 straight road playoff games.

"The challenge was playing Sacramento and not having home-court advantage," said Kobe Bryant, who had a game-high 30 points. "We have really been looking forward to getting back to this point."

For the Kings' sake, at least the errors they made in Saturday's game were mostly correctable. Vlade Divac and Scott Pollard can't let Shaq get the deep post position he enjoyed nearly every time he set up. Chris Webber can't be an indecisive defender, allowing Robert Horry wide open looks.

And both Webber and Divac need to play tough: Too often the Lakers got second- and third-chance opportunities because Webber and Divac were not aggressive enough putting a body on someone or attacking the boards. One of the most crucial sequences of the game occurred with 3:44 left when Shaq jumped over Webber to grab an offensive rebound, scored on a lay-up and converted a three-point play. If Webber is more aggressive in getting the rebound, the Kings are down six with the ball. Instead, Shaq's three-point play gave the Lakers a 98-89 lead.

A goal of the Kings on their off-day should be to build up the confidence of small forward Hedo Turkoglu, who finished with the same amount of points -- zero -- as the man he replaced in the starting line-up, the injured Peja Stojakovic.

Seems like Hedo -- who showed signs of breaking out of his post-season slump with a 20-point effort in the series clincher against Dallas -- studied tapes of the HBO show "Oz" in preparation for the series, as he allowed Rick Fox to bully him all over the court.

"I'm not worried about Hedo, he'll be fine," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "He always finds a way to bounce back."

The big question is whether the Kings can find a way to bounce back. They're not matched up against the Jazz who -- despite taking home-court advantage away from the Kings -- didn't have the firepower to win their opening-round series. They're not playing the Mavs who -- despite taking home-court advantage away from the Kings in the second round -- didn't have the defensive commitment required for playoff success.

These are the Lakers, who have the NBA's two best players as well as a cast of others who thrive in their supporting roles.

For the last 36 minutes the Kings were able to play with the two-time defending champions. It's those first 12 minutes that may ultimately doom a team that has now lost the only real advantage it had.

"They have to win four," Adelman said, offering a positive spin. "If they beat us once, it's not over."

If, by the end of Monday's game, the Lakers have beaten the Kings twice, this series is over. And no one will remember those 61 wins, that Western Conference regular-season title, and those cowbells.

The Kings, to a man, said it was only fitting that their goal of a title go through the Lakers.

"They asked for us," Shaq said after the game. "We're here."

Jerry Bembry is general editor (NBA) at ESPN The Magazine. He can be reached at Jerry.Bembry@espnpub.com.