May 31, 2002 10:42 AM EST
You suspect, then, that Bibby will indeed get a vote or two in the race for Player of the Playoffs, assuming Sacramento can win either Friday's Game 6 at Staples Center or an if-necessary Game 7 at home Sunday.
The Kings would thus proceed to the role of overwhelming favorite in The Finals against the New Jersey-Boston survivor. Sacramento has two shots to win one against the Lakers, largely because of Bibby embracing fourth-quarter pressure much more readily than he soaks up postgame adulation.
After three seasons of torment toiling in Vancouver, and an unremarkable fitting-in regular season with the Kings, Bibby has gradually established himself as Sacramento's most dependable postseason player. That's despite arriving for a first-round matchup with Utah sage John Stockton with no prior experience, unless you count an NCAA championship as an Arizona freshman in 1997.
Via Dallas Morning News
Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers
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May 31, 2002 10:20 AM EST
Why should anyone be surprised the Lakers find themselves in this predicament?
They have, after all, been headed here for months, a fateful rendezvous at the intersection of Hubris and Nonchalance.
For most of the season, it was almost as if the Lakers were playing under a sponsorship from the United States Postal Service. You know, mailing it in.
As a sizzling 16-1 start turned into a tepid 58-24 finish and only the second-best record in the Western Conference, the two-time defending champs have been nothing if not haughty in their conviction they are owed a third title.
From Shaquille O'Neal to Kobe Bryant to Phil Jackson to even newcomers such as Samaki Walker, their philosophy and attitude seem to have been bought at a lamp store. Just flip the switch and the light will go on.
Via Houston Chronicle
Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings
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May 30, 2002 10:38 AM EST
Two games left, and zero hesitation remaining. It's already official, no matter what happens Friday night to the twice-defending NBA champions.
They're vulnerable.
The question that hung over the Los Angeles Lakers all season, with an answer promised us in the playoffs, isn't being asked any more. You no longer wonder about LA – really vulnerable, or just teasing? – because you've either seen or heard about the first five games of the Western Conference finals.
Sacramento has won three of them and came within a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Robert Horry of winning Game 4, too. From here, whether or not these young Kings can actually finish the series off, you also know that they're going to keep getting better, with a little team from Dallas determined to spend and deal and follow the same depth-trumps-stars blueprint.
Via Dallas Morning News
Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks
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Kings May 2002 Archive
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Houston Chronicle | May 30, 2002
Brown has searched the world, or at least an unprecedented bulk of the NBA, to get the championship feeling again.
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| May 30, 2002
All Webber wants is the ring
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Houston Chronicle | May 29, 2002
The Kings used to have a point guard who could make plays.
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| May 29, 2002
Mike Bibby used a Chris Webber screen to perfection last night, leading to what became the winning basket as the Sacramento Kings took a 3-2 lead in the best of seven series.
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Dallas Morning News | May 28, 2002
Worry not for the team overthrown by buzzer-beaters in both halves, the team that couldn't hold a 24-point lead, the team that let slip the chance to usher Phil Jackson and Team Smug to death's door for a change.
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Houston Chronicle | May 28, 2002
They did just enough to win fourth quarters and beat the Spurs.
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sacramento Bee | May 28, 2002
Martin McNeal of the Sacramento Bee writes: The Kings have smacked, whacked, cracked, jacked, overwhelmed and embarrassed the two-time NBA defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
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| May 27, 2002
Last night it was Horry's turn to play hero
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| May 26, 2002
It has been a long time since the Los Angeles Lakers have been in a situation like this.
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| May 25, 2002
The Sacramento Kings looked the hungrier and more determined team in Los Angeles last night, the Kings leading big before the Lakers finished Game 3 strongly to win 103-90 and take a 2-1 lead in the playoff series.
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| May 24, 2002
The doubt surrounding the availability of superstar Kobe Bryant looks like it was a false alarm after all.
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| May 23, 2002
Michael Arkush of the New York Times is reporting that talk in the Lakers camp is not on the adjustments the team has to make to revenge the Game 2 loss to the Sacramento Kings, but rather a possible adjustment the team may have to make to play without superstar Kobe Bryant.
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Philadelphia Inquirer | May 22, 2002
The Kings can run with anybody.
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Houston Chronicle | May 21, 2002
Fran Blinebury makes excuses for Kobe Bryant and the Lakers: Monday night, Bryant attempted a re-creation of one of Air Jordan's greatest hits -- jumping up off his sickbed to work playoff magic.
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| May 21, 2002
The debate through the years has always been who is the air apparent to His Greatness Michael Jordan.
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Dallas Morning News | May 20, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Philadelphia Inquirer | May 20, 2002
Having spent days talking trash to the defending world champion Lakers, vowing they would rule the West because their home-court advantage was too much for Los Angeles to overcome, the Sacramento Kings promptly turned in 12 horrendous minutes of basketball that they spent 36 minutes futilely trying to overcome.
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| May 19, 2002
In November 1999, the bold proclamation came from the grandest pro basketball pooh-bah of them all: David Stern.
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| May 19, 2002
The Los Angeles Lakers took immediate control of the Western Conference Finals last night, taking an early lead against the Sacramento Kings at Arco Arena and never giving it up to take a 1-0 lead.
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Houston Chronicle | May 16, 2002
The final horn had barely sounded when head coach Phil Jackson and fourth-quarter matinee idol Kobe Bryant were rushing to a spot in the headlines and trying to establish the Lakers as underdogs in their next playoff series.
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Dallas Morning News | May 15, 2002
The Los Angeles Lakers completed a second-round sweep of the Kings on that day a year ago.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 15, 2002
It was a jubilant Mavericks team that entered the playoffs against Sacramento.
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Houston Chronicle | May 15, 2002
Perhaps Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban learned that lesson in his team's five-game drubbing at the hands of the Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference semifinals.
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| May 15, 2002
If the pre-series altercations are any indication the Los Angeles-Sacramento series is bound to be a feisty one.
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Dallas Morning News | May 14, 2002
Turns out they didn't have the edge at point guard.
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Dallas Morning News | May 14, 2002
The season ended despite the return to form of Dirk Nowitzki, who finally delivered the kind of All-Star performance that had eluded him all series.
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Star Telegram | May 14, 2002
With four minutes left in Monday's 114-101 series-clinching victory over the Mavericks, Sacramento Kings fans started loudly chanting "Beat LA, Beat LA.
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| May 14, 2002
As the Sacramento Kings moved past the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs to book their place in the Western Conference Finals, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News could not help by look back to the Kings of yesteryear, a team which lost close games and was swept in the second round, to see what has changed.
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| May 14, 2002
Mike Bibby has made a world of diffence to the Sacramento Kings.
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| May 12, 2002
Fate seemed against the Sacramento Kings in Game 4 yet the team was able to dig deep to pull out the unlikeliest of victories, 115-113 in overtime, to go up 3-1 in their second round series against the Mavericks.
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Dallas Morning News | May 10, 2002
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn't have to go far to get an official explanation this time.
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Dallas Morning News | May 10, 2002
He managed no more than a quiet 19 points and five rebounds to take the sharpest dip yet from the first-round domination that put Nowitzki on last week's Sports Illustrated cover.
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Dallas Morning News | May 10, 2002
The Sacramento Kings spent parts of Thursday's Game 3 without two of their starters.
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Star Telegram | May 10, 2002
DALLAS - It hasn't taken Sacramento Kings guard Mike Bibby long to warm to playoff basketball.
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Star Telegram | May 10, 2002
After expending all that energy in taking home-court advantage away from the Sacramento Kings on Monday, the Mavericks gave it back Thursday night.
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Houston Chronicle | May 10, 2002
There were thousands of cowbells and hundreds of decibels echoing off the walls.
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| May 10, 2002
Michael Murphy of the Houston Chronicle reports that the Mavericks did everything in their power to try to get inside the heads of the Sacramento Kings, even going as far as importing some cow bells similar to the ones Kings fans used, but Sacramento just would not bite.
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Dallas Morning News | May 9, 2002
He played fewer minutes, took fewer shots, scored fewer points and grabbed fewer rebounds.
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Dallas Morning News | May 9, 2002
And why Raef LaFrentz is suddenly the Mavericks' most important factor of all.
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Dallas Morning News | May 9, 2002
For local fans, it's payback time – time for a real uproar, said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who told a reporter in Sacramento: "Just wait till we get back to Dallas.
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Dallas Morning News | May 8, 2002
After complaining about cowbell-ringing during timeouts in Sacramento, Dallas is planning on payback, within limits, writes Jodie Valade of the Dallas Morning News.
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Dallas Morning News | May 8, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Star Telegram | May 7, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Star Telegram | May 7, 2002
With cowbells still ringing in their ears, the Mavericks were finally able to quiet the Sacramento Kings.
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Dallas Morning News | May 7, 2002
no good reason to change, the Kings went away from what worked on offense so well in the opening game of this second round playoff series.
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Dallas Morning News | May 7, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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| May 7, 2002
It looks like Mavs owner Mark Cuban is unhappy with the noise coming out of the Arco Arena, the fans making an unbearable noise through the ringing of cow bells in an effort to give their side any time of advantage.
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Dallas Morning News | May 6, 2002
After the way Divac quietly shredded them inside Saturday, with a whopping 18 points and 16 rebounds, one of the visitors felt moved to make the bold post-game prognostication.
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Dallas Morning News | May 6, 2002
"Do we look panicked?" Nelson asked.
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Star Telegram | May 6, 2002
By DWAIN PRICE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Dallas Mornings News | May 4, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Dallas Mornings News | May 4, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Dallas Mornings News | May 4, 2002
No two teams better display the rise of the international player, and the NBA's best chance of overturning the power-driven dominance of Shaquille O'Neal's Los Angeles Lakers now lies in foreign-born names like Nowitzki, Stojakovic, Divac and Wang.
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Star Telegram | May 4, 2002
Sacramento, though, is as distant culturally from San Francisco as it is geographically.
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Dallas Morning News | May 3, 2002
Problem is, it's not just nagging questions these days.
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Star Telegram | May 3, 2002
DALLAS (AP) - Dallas guard Michael Finley didn't practice Thursday because of a back strain, but he is expected to be ready for Game 1 of the Mavericks playoff series in Sacramento on Saturday.
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Star Telegram | May 3, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Dallas Morning News | May 2, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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Star Telegram | May 2, 2002
DALLAS - The Mavericks rolled through the regular season as the NBA's ultimate road warriors, compiling the best away record in the league and franchise history - 27-14.
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Dallas Morning News | May 1, 2002
In all, 22 coaches have guided teams to the NBA's conference finals since a feisty young Don Nelson made his third and final visit with Milwaukee in 1986.
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Dallas Morning News | May 1, 2002
According to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, the defensive rules changes the NBA instituted last offseason were a success.
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