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Marcos Bretón: Again, Ron is proving he can do no wrong
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, March 15, 2006[/b]
In the battle of Ron Artest vs. Kobe Bryant, this was no contest.
Bryant's 30 points against the Kings on Tuesday at Arco Arena - in Sacramento's emphatic 114-98 win to move past Los Angeles in the playoff chase - were as meaningless as a vow of marriage in the Hollywood Hills.
Bryant got his points, but they hardly mattered. Artest dogged No. 8 all night, got up in his chest, got hands on his shots, made him work for every breath of air he took in the musty din that was Arco Arena - the aging palace of unfulfilled dreams.
It's no secret that Bryant is largely responsible for the venomous frustration lurking within Arco's walls, his deadly accuracy a major reason why no championship banner hangs from Arco's creaky rafters. Now here were the Lakers with new stakes at hand; with a suddenly surging Kings team a conquest of the Lakers away from passing their nemesis in the standings and securing - for the moment - the seventh spot in the Western Conference.
And there was Artest menacing Bryant, a stirring battle to behold but hardly the sole reason the Kings achieved their latest highlight in a month of highlights.
Yes. Bryant vs. Artest was merely the subplot of this story, which was a thriller in its opening sequence and stirring for a time before the obvious became apparent:
Mr. Bryant is a show pony in a stable of mules. He's a one-man gang surrounded by lightweights, with players unable to do what he can do in his sleep. Yes, indeed. It's hard to win when a team has only one guy who can hurt you when it counts.
Lamar Odom is terrific in theory, and was effective early on, when blunders and mental hiccups by the Kings afforded him uncontested shots he knocked down in what looked like sure trouble for Sacramento. After all, the Lakers led by seven after one quarter with Odom leading the way and Bryant having only two points to show for it.
But Kings coach Rick Adelman gathered his team and reminded them of how they blew the last game against the Lakers, when the Artest-vs.-Kobe hype - and a national TV audience - sucked the Kings into their jittery, quick-shooting ways.
It was happening again Tuesday, and considering Adelman is the first to admit he still doesn't fully know this team, doesn't know how it will react to things, he had to be watching with some anxiety until the transformed Kings shook themselves and ceased acting like the retiring bunch that used to play in Arco Arena six weeks ago.
Remember them? The guys who used to sleepwalk in transition? The ones who would fail to help out on defense? The ones who would shoot aimlessly rather than find the open man? The ones who didn't trust each other?
They could have stuck around Tuesday, particularly when the Lakers answered the Kings' early assaults and crowd-energizing moments, such as a thrilling Kevin Martin dunk, and Artest held Bryant in check.
There were the Lakers in the lead, and there was that familiar anxiety in the old arena again, that sinking feeling Kings fans know so well. Even super-rich Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof were wincing at muffed Kings free throws as if they'd swallowed a bushel of bad cupcakes.
And then?
And then we saw Brad Miller blocking shots, we saw Kings players swarming Lakers ballhandlers, we saw the Kings find Kenny Thomas or Bonzi Wells or Shareef Abdur-Rahim for punishing layups that often drew fouls.
How does this happen? How does a team suddenly find a collective identity and begin trusting each other when they didn't before? Answer that one, and you discover the key to the new Kings and to Tuesday's primary story line.
Yes, Artest scored 28 points - including some critical three-point shots. And yes, he neutralized Bryant enough to shift the load to the disappearing Odom. And yes, the Lakers were missing some key players.
But no, it wasn't all Bryant and Artest.
It was Artest as the catalyst, shaking a team awake. Again.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14230422p-15053219c.html
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, March 15, 2006[/b]
In the battle of Ron Artest vs. Kobe Bryant, this was no contest.
Bryant's 30 points against the Kings on Tuesday at Arco Arena - in Sacramento's emphatic 114-98 win to move past Los Angeles in the playoff chase - were as meaningless as a vow of marriage in the Hollywood Hills.
Bryant got his points, but they hardly mattered. Artest dogged No. 8 all night, got up in his chest, got hands on his shots, made him work for every breath of air he took in the musty din that was Arco Arena - the aging palace of unfulfilled dreams.
It's no secret that Bryant is largely responsible for the venomous frustration lurking within Arco's walls, his deadly accuracy a major reason why no championship banner hangs from Arco's creaky rafters. Now here were the Lakers with new stakes at hand; with a suddenly surging Kings team a conquest of the Lakers away from passing their nemesis in the standings and securing - for the moment - the seventh spot in the Western Conference.
And there was Artest menacing Bryant, a stirring battle to behold but hardly the sole reason the Kings achieved their latest highlight in a month of highlights.
Yes. Bryant vs. Artest was merely the subplot of this story, which was a thriller in its opening sequence and stirring for a time before the obvious became apparent:
Mr. Bryant is a show pony in a stable of mules. He's a one-man gang surrounded by lightweights, with players unable to do what he can do in his sleep. Yes, indeed. It's hard to win when a team has only one guy who can hurt you when it counts.
Lamar Odom is terrific in theory, and was effective early on, when blunders and mental hiccups by the Kings afforded him uncontested shots he knocked down in what looked like sure trouble for Sacramento. After all, the Lakers led by seven after one quarter with Odom leading the way and Bryant having only two points to show for it.
But Kings coach Rick Adelman gathered his team and reminded them of how they blew the last game against the Lakers, when the Artest-vs.-Kobe hype - and a national TV audience - sucked the Kings into their jittery, quick-shooting ways.
It was happening again Tuesday, and considering Adelman is the first to admit he still doesn't fully know this team, doesn't know how it will react to things, he had to be watching with some anxiety until the transformed Kings shook themselves and ceased acting like the retiring bunch that used to play in Arco Arena six weeks ago.
Remember them? The guys who used to sleepwalk in transition? The ones who would fail to help out on defense? The ones who would shoot aimlessly rather than find the open man? The ones who didn't trust each other?
They could have stuck around Tuesday, particularly when the Lakers answered the Kings' early assaults and crowd-energizing moments, such as a thrilling Kevin Martin dunk, and Artest held Bryant in check.
There were the Lakers in the lead, and there was that familiar anxiety in the old arena again, that sinking feeling Kings fans know so well. Even super-rich Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof were wincing at muffed Kings free throws as if they'd swallowed a bushel of bad cupcakes.
And then?
And then we saw Brad Miller blocking shots, we saw Kings players swarming Lakers ballhandlers, we saw the Kings find Kenny Thomas or Bonzi Wells or Shareef Abdur-Rahim for punishing layups that often drew fouls.
How does this happen? How does a team suddenly find a collective identity and begin trusting each other when they didn't before? Answer that one, and you discover the key to the new Kings and to Tuesday's primary story line.
Yes, Artest scored 28 points - including some critical three-point shots. And yes, he neutralized Bryant enough to shift the load to the disappearing Odom. And yes, the Lakers were missing some key players.
But no, it wasn't all Bryant and Artest.
It was Artest as the catalyst, shaking a team awake. Again.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14230422p-15053219c.html
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