The Los Angeles Lakers, being the premier team and the premier draw in the league, survived against the Kings. The NBA Finals begin Wednesday, with an East Coast-West Coast, two-largest-TV-markets-in-the-country matchup involving the Lakers and New Jersey Nets. The Nets have no prayer (repeating my Super Bowl prediction about the New England Patriots), but that's not the point.

The NBA is "better" off with Shaq in the prime-time spotlight than, say, Vlade. Business is business, man.

I've got no problem, by the way, with the Game 7 outcome, won by the Lakers. Sat there and watched it on TV and agonized over the Kings repeatedly missing free throws. Overall, it was a series Sacramento deserved to win and should have won, but when you tank it at the line like that, you get what's coming to you.

What, however, did the Kings "get" in the Game 6 loss at Los Angeles on Friday night?

That particular outcome will be debated for many years. That one caused the outrage I was hearing over the weekend. Explaining those 27 free throws the Lakers shot in the fourth quarter alone is impossible. There is no logical explanation for the work of the three referees involved in Game 6, even Dick Bavetta, certainly one of the best in the league.