LOS ANGELES -- The Western Conference finals are scheduled to start Saturday. The Los Angeles Lakers couldn't wait.

Piqued by what they consider a lack of respect demonstrated by the Sacramento Kings during the regular season and clearly believing an emoting King is an imploding one, the Lakers took the series' first shots Tuesday in their locker room.

	Matching Up
	Here's a quick look at the regular-season series between the Lakers and Kings. Los Angeles had little trouble when Chris Webber was out of the lineup and got big numbers from Shaq and Kobe, while Sacramento was outplayed in the second half of games but got lots of production from Peja Stojakovic.
	Lakers 3-1	Won 2 of 3 Webber DNP O'Neal: 25.3 ppg Bryant: 25.5 ppg Team: 26.7 3-pt. pct
	Kings 1-3	Outscored by 27 in 2nd half Team: 93.3 ppg Stojakovic: 18.3 ppg Christie: 33.3 FG pct.

On one side of the room a photocopy of Vlade Divac hung in Shaq's locker, complete with a Vlade quote: "If (the Lakers) don't have the home-court advantage this year, they're not going to win it." On the other side there was a marker board where the team travel instructions read: "Friday to Sacrebleau ... Sat & Mon vs. Kinks."

And nearby was Rick Fox, throwing down the proverbial gauntlet: "We're going to win the next round. I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it."

Here's guessing that quote shows up somewhere in the Kings' locker room before this series is over.

However long this series lasts -- and I'm not sure it will go any farther than the second round did -- this promises to be as good as it gets in this year's postseason. No offense to the Celtics or Nets or New Orleans Hornets, but the NBA Finals figure to have all the intrigue of a mouse in a python's lair -- since you know how it ends you just hope it gets over fast.

I don't believe the Kings have any better chance of beating the Lakers than the Mavs had of beating the Kings. The games could look competitive and the Kings even could win a game convincingly, but the conviction, the-refuse-to-lose toughness, simply isn't there. Whatever reasons there are to argue the contrary fade under the light of playoff scrutiny. The Kings had the best regular-season record, which earned them the home-court advantage. They finished up their second-round dispatch of the Mavs a day before the Lakers finished off the Spurs, giving them an extra day of preparation. They have Doug Christie to match up with Kobe and two running big men in Chris Webber and Vlade Divac to take advantage of a hobbled Shaq and a creaky Robert Horry.

The home court doesn't mean much against the Lakers, because they've quietly won 11 consecutive road playoff games. It actually could be a detriment for the Kings since they seem to rely far too much on their raucous fans to provide energy rather than generating their own and will feel a letdown if they blow the advantage they worked all season to achieve. Even in their closeout game against the Mavs they took an early lead but looked flat, particularly on offense, and their effort on the road against the Jazz and Mavs was far better than at Arco.

Similarly, an extra day of preparation doesn't mean a whole lot because the Kings prefer to play by the seat of their pants no matter what coach Rick Adelman tells them. The extra time would only matter if it meant the difference between having Peja Stojakovic (sprained ankle) or not and it doesn't. And Bruce Bowen is every bit the defender Christie is and he couldn't stop Kobe from doing exactly what needed to be done at crunch time.

	Shutting Them Down
	The Kings will have to find a way to score if they are to beat the Lakers. Sacramento scored just over 93 points per game in four games against Los Angeles, its lowest average against any Western Conference team, but Chris Webber missed three of those games with injuries. Here's a look at Sacramento's lowest averages against western teams and how the Kings fared in those games.
		PPG	W-L
	Lakers	93.3	1-3
	Blazers	97.3	2-2
	Spurs	100.8	3-1
	Sonics	102.0	2-2
	Rockets	103.3	4-0

The biggest reason the Kings could have trouble posing a bigger challenge than even the Spurs did, though, is that they're not nearly as mentally tough and never have been to the conference finals before. Just as they'd never been to the second round before last year's brief visit. We saw how well they acclimated to that elevation change, getting swept by the Lakers without much of a fight -- and certainly far less of one than expected.

"The level of play, whether they understand or know, will step up again," Fox said.

The Lakers are vulnerable in that Shaq clearly can't grip the ball with his stitched finger and can't move on an arthritic toe carrying enough extra weight to look like a cross between Buster Douglas and Marlon Brando in "Apocalypse Now." Their bench never has been more thin with Samaki Walker and Lindsey Hunter unable to raise their games and Devean George playing tentative. As of now, Brian Shaw is the only reserve coach Phil Jackson can count on to give a consistent performance.

That would be a problem if the Kings had the mental tenacity to bury the Lakers when they have the chance. Sacramento, though, judges how well it's playing on the score, which means if they're up by 10, they figure they're doing fine and put it in cruise control instead of trying to bump the margin to 20. That's why all that depth and scoring won't mean much because the Lakers will hang around until the end, where there's no one better at controlling the fourth-quarter tempo. As the Kings will soon find out. Again.

AND ONES: Former Spurs forward and current TV analyst Sean Elliott said "10 percent" of him wants to resume his career, which is why he was seen striding down an Alamodome hallway the other night dragging a sled of weights tied to his waist. Miami and Cleveland already have expressed interest, but if he were going to go to a lottery team Denver would be first on his list ... Mavs center and Chinese national Wang Zhi Zhi's NBA career could be over. Sources indicate he will definitely miss training camp and the start of next season and could be kept from returning at all because his relationship with Chinese authorities has been strained ... Del Harris and Eddie Jordan are on the Nuggets' short list of coaching candidates. Interviews will begin after all candidates are available, which means after the Nets are eliminated at the earliest. Scratch Larry Brown from the short list -- the cost of extricating him from his Philly deal and the Nuggets' rebuilding effort being closer to the start than finish make hiring him impractical for now.

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ric.bucher@espnmag.com.