The Sacramento Kings will be in whatever alley you chose at 2 a.m. Showing no apparent aftershocks from the way last season ended, they have a growing swagger and will stand vocal chords to vocal chords with the Los Angeles Lakers.

	Losing to L.A. did not sit well with Chris Webber and the Kings all summer.

And it's the worst thing they can do.

Sacramento -- the team and the city, given that it's basically the same thing -- doesn't have to tip-toe around the Lakers, and is the only organization that has earned even that much. Stomping right behind in heavy boots is fine. You win a division title and lead the league with 61 wins and then get eliminated by the eventual champions in overtime of a Game 7 of a great series, you apologize to no one.

But to call out the Lakers?

This was no way to end the last season -- considering that they, um ... lost! -- and an even worse way to begin this one. The Kings won't let it go because the media keeps asking them about responding to the crushing defeat in the Western Conference finals and the Kings won't let it go because they have earned the right to go chest-out and fire back on the tweakings that come from L.A. But the Kings should let it go. Walk softly and carry a big schtick.

Actually, both teams should have let it go a long time ago. Sacramento complained about the refs; the Lakers complained about the refs. The Kings knew it could have been a different outcome if Peja Stojakovic wasn't hurt; Los Angeles knew it could have been a quicker outcome if Kobe Bryant hadn't gotten food poisoning. That was in the conferences finals. But then that was also after the conference finals and the Lakers suddenly weren't offering détente anymore about how the challengers had earned their respect in that showdown that went from mid-May to early-June and will last forever.

Some of the Kings kept talking, so the Lakers played the Nets in the Finals -- and talked about Sacramento. The Lakers held their annual parade and Shaquille O'Neal encouraged parents to tell the children that the state capital had been moved to Los Angeles. Vlade Divac noted before the World Championships that his Yugoslavian squad would have the second-best roster in Indianapolis, but that "you never know. Just like playing the Lakers. The better team sometimes loses." So the second-best team in the NBA, the one that had just won a third consecutive title and claimed that Game 7 on the road in the very building that is supposed to be the closest thing to a homecourt lock, officially went back to their original policy of backhanding the Kings at every opportunity.

Sacramento will get in the Lakers' face now, a confidence earned even in defeat because that defeat was close enough to prove in the Kings' locker room that they can play with L.A. It's just that by showing they are not still wounded by the events of June, even as people reminded them the Trail Blazers never made it back after pushing the envelope in the 2000 West finals, and that they would have a swagger instead of being subordinate, the Kings have done exactly what they should have avoided.

Provided more motivation to the Lakers.

"If they were smart," one Lakers official said, "they'd let sleeping dogs lie. Complacency has always been our biggest problem."

Exactly. OK, that and those surfboards O'Neal calls his feet and toes, but the Kings have emotionally sparked the Lakers, instead of regrouping and coming back with an inner-confidence that could have spoken just as loud beginning Tuesday. The pursuit of trying to become the first team to land the quad -- four consecutive titles -- since the Celtics' run of eight in a row ended in 1966, a period when it was so obvious that referees had it in for the Cincinnati Royals, would have been enough of a carrot for Los Angeles. That Sacramento is the one holding the stick out there is a bonus.

As Rick Fox said during the Finals:

	“	We understand the jealousy and the envy that can come with the success of being a really good team, but now it's (ticked) us off, to tell you the truth. It's laid a challenge down to be even greater. ”
		— Rick Fox

"It's great when people get close and get praised for it. They still didn't win. Like I said, all they did was make it very evident that they had made strides ... So do they catch us next year? No. But will it be great basketball and exciting talk if we do see them again? Yeah. People will pick them to win the championship next year. I'm sure they will. I don't understand it. They haven't done anything yet.

"The talk is going on right now in the locker room, in looking forward to finishing our job here (against the Nets) and having our chance to defend again next year. There's really been talk surrounding the comments that have come out of Sacramento -- the comments we hear about our coach, the comments about this is just a Shaq-and-Kobe team, or, more than not, this is just a Shaq team and you put him on any team and they win a championship. We understand the jealousy and the envy that can come with the success of being a really good team, but now it's (ticked) us off, to tell you the truth. It's laid a challenge down to be even greater.

"But it's like Phil (Jackson) said. It's difficult to be a good loser. I don't know if I could have been a good loser, so I don't want to point the finger and say I wouldn't have been doing the same thing. But it's only lighting more of a fire under Shaq and Kobe and the rest of us to go back and treat the summer as an opportunity to get better and come back and have even a better year than we had this year."

So Bryant, a demon worker in the offseason, showed to camp with 15 or so more pounds of muscle, and O'Neal, though not having had his toe surgery until late in the summer (or exactly on what everyone's realistic timetable should have been all along), appeared as in shape as at any time last season. There was no way to guage his actual conditioning, but Shaq not pushing four-bills after so much inactivity was the first Lakers victory, given the way he has checked in for recent preseasons. Speaking of bold statements.

For their part, the Kings hit October in good shape too, the only setback coming when Mike Bibby needed surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot. They are comfortable in the role of defending a division title and confident about the chance to win it all, as the favorites or otherwise.

"The Lakers are the favorites," coach Rick Adelman said. "They're the three-time world champions. How could you consider anybody else?"

That's better.

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