LOS ANGELES -- So much of this has been about mood, anyway. What the Lakers said about the Kings, what the Kings said about the Lakers, what the smog-eating, plastic people of Los Angeles said about the rednecks of Sacramento, what the small-minded hayseeds in Sacramento said about the come late/leave early bandwagon jumpers in Los Angeles, what everyone said about the refs, and the news that Arthur Murray just became part-owner of the Kings.

So the opportunity now before Sacramento might as well be about emotions. The team can reach the championship series for the first time with one more win, and the town can reach the heavens. That's the thing. Los Angeles and Boston have been in the Finals so often that for a while there it was strange when they weren't involved. New Jersey has never made it with an orange ball, but there were alllllll those years when no one cared enough to notice and management pumped in crowd noise over the loud speakers to force feed atmosphere into the arena in the Meadowlands.

	Beating L.A. one more time will make Kings fans' biggest dream come true.

Sacramento is different. (We're talking basketball-wise now.)

Sacramento is reveling in this moment, even at just being in the Western Conference finals for the first time, let alone what could happen on Friday or Sunday

Sacramento has its share of bandwagon types who will quickly turn on their own -- ask Chris Webber about his popularity rating at this time a year ago, ask anyone how much Vlade Divac will be getting cut up 11 months from now if he's running on fumes -- but few places hung so long with their team in bad times. Two different home buildings were routinely sold out when players too often looked like they were selling out. There were nights when the arena was not at capacity, despite claims to the contrary to keep a streak alive, but the constant support was legit.

Sacramento, bottom line, has invested for this moment. Unlike any of the other three teams still alive, a Kings win in the conference final would be for the fans as much as the franchise itself. If not more.

What it says when a city needs the success of a sports team to help define its identity, when it should be a great place to be even during lottery times, is best left for others to consider. But there is no doubting that a big part of the story of the emergence of the Kings in the last three or four years is that it's so different in Sac (relax, still basketball) and that one more win against the Lakers would rank as one of the great moments in the region.

The city's revised history:

1. California admitted to the Union, Sacramento named state capital.
2. Dreaded Huns from the south turned back, Sacramento made safe again for future generations.
3. Transcontinental railroad started with first meeting in Sacramento.
4. Gold rush.
5. Mike Bibby acquired in trade.
6. Geoff Petrie landslide winner as write-in candidate for mayor.

And so on.

The place is ready. The latest check of the gauge showed fans were on "simmer," and that one of the owners, Gavin Maloof, was secretly practicing new dance steps for the next victory that demands cutting loose and jumping on the scorer's table, just like after Game 5 versus the Lakers.

The Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau had packets to promote the city. You can learn that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, TV and movie types Molly Ringwald, Sam Elliot, Timothy Busfield and Joan Lunden are natives (and that anything bad about them are only because they got exposed to the evil of Hollywood), and that James Marshall went from discovering gold in California to passing on penniless, after he asked leaders for a monthy pension "for recognition of his considerable service to the State" and got taken care of for one year and received half the next. See. Bandwagon.

	The place is ready. The latest check of the gauge showed fans were on "simmer," and that one of the owners, Gavin Maloof, was secretly practicing new dance steps for the next victory that demands cutting loose and jumping on the scorer's table.

Getting there is the tough part. Just as the climb is steeper in the regular season, when it's one thing to go from 44 to 55 wins but quite another to go from 55 to 61, so it goes in the playoffs as well. The Kings have a 3-2 lead on the Lakers, have won in Los Angeles and Sacramento, have won with great starts and historic finishes (Bibby, jumper, right side, 8.2 seconds remaining, Game 5), but getting the clinch against a prideful group will be something different. That it will have to come against an opponent that has merely won the last two championships makes the task even more profound.

The Lakers arrive at the moment with confidence and a shrug. Or maybe that's how they're looking at it because there is no other choice. And there's always the other thought: They're not very practiced at this on-the-brink thing. It's happened only twice in the 10 previous playoff series under coach Phil Jackson, and both of those were in 2000 when Jackson was telling anyone who would listen that it wasn't realistic to expect a title in the first year with his system because of the long learning curve with the triangle offense.

The responses then turned out to be even more dramatic than the buildup, which was considerable despite Jackson's attempts at dialing down expectations. The Kings came back from 0-2 in the first round to win twice at Arco Arena and torch a Lakers jersey -- the only thing on fire in 2002 is Bibby -- before L.A. flexed in the deciding Game 5 and won by 27. Two series later, the Trail Blazers rallied from a 1-3 deficit to grab the momentum with two consecutive victories, then grabbed it all the way into the late fourth quarter before Portland's collapse for the ages.

The Lakers won that Western Conference final, beat the Pacers for the title in six games, and the next season went 3-0 versus the Trail Blazers, 4-0 on the Kings, 4-0 against the Spurs and 4-1 over the 76ers, with Philadelphia winning the opener to at least force Los Angeles to play catch-up for a change. This spring started with 3-0 (Portland, first round) and 4-1 (San Antonio, second round), and then 1-0 on the Kings with an overpowering opener.

That start faded. Sacramento won three of the next four, answering the last-second moment by Robert Horry in Game 4 with one of its own by Bibby, and earned the cushion of knowing it has two tries to win once to advance to the Finals. The Lakers, meanwhile, earned the chance to show it could succeed in the relatively unknown territory of an elimination game, at least after someone tells them what one is.

"I feel good," Rick Fox told reporters searching for sweat popping out on foreheads. "I know you guys may want to hear that we're stressed or that we feel as though there's some sense of anxiety that goes along with this. I like the way we played in Game 5. I really do. You credit Bibby for the shot he made and our inability to put one back on them again, like we did in Game 4, but I like that we play at home on Friday and that if we get to a Game 7, we play well at Arco."

Said Kobe Bryant: "It's a challenging situation. We do realize it's pretty much do or die. Win or go home. And we're comfortable with that."

Comfortable in the today. A champion with a long and storied tradition can afford that approach. In Sacramento, they're also living for the moment. It's just that in the Kings' case, it's this moment and all the others that came before.

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