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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Lakers 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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| May 23, 2002
Whatever you do, do not feel sorry for Mitch Richmond.
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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
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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San Antonio Express-News | May 15, 2002
"I need to be more aggressive down the stretch," Duncan said.
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Houston Chronicle | May 15, 2002
The Lakers were the hot breath on the San Antonio Spurs' necks, the big, looming shadow they never could outrun.
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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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| May 15, 2002
When it all boils down the San Antonio Spurs caught too much of Kobe Bryant when the game mattered most down the stretch in this series, and now as the sun rises today on a new day the Spurs season is over.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 14, 2002
In reality, the Lakers attributed their stirring comeback in Sunday's 87-85 victory over the Spurs their third similar rally in a playoff series they now lead 3-1 to the unglamorous art of defense.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 14, 2002
Five days after Kobe Bryant boasted, "The party just got started," he and the Lakers again pulled the plug on the Spurs' festivities.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 14, 2002
So on Monday, less than 24 hours after his Lakers had taken a commanding 3-1 lead over the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals, Bryant was asked if he preferred late-game theatrics to easy victories.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 14, 2002
Less than a year after being whisked out of the Western Conference finals at the Staples Center, the Spurs return here once again having to listen to the Lakers' taunts, again forced to answer questions about their own confidence and composure.
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Philadelphia Inquirer | May 14, 2002
Kobe Bryant, whose frequently fitful and painful evolution seems to be smoothing out at last, has developed into that player.
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| May 14, 2002
Mike Bibby has made a world of diffence to the Sacramento Kings.
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| May 13, 2002
It all happened so quickly.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 10, 2002
Fueled by Tuesday's victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, several hundred Spurs fans gathered for a Thursday afternoon pep rally, eager to support the team they believe can crown the Alamo City with a championship.
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Houston Chronicle | May 10, 2002
Rose stood next to the dome's court Thursday and imagined the emotions that could rise again when Tim Duncan is presented the Most Valuable Player before tonight's Game 3 against the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.
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Houston Chronicle | May 9, 2002
Parker seemed neither boastful nor excited amid the rising volume of celebration in the Spurs' locker room.
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Houston Chronicle | May 8, 2002
So when word leaked out that San Antonio's Tim Duncan had been voted the Most Valuable Player for the season, it wasn't much of a reach for Shaq to play judge and jury.
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| May 8, 2002
They might have blew Game 1 but the San Antonio Spurs showed they are still a team to be reckoned with in Game 2.
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| May 7, 2002
Even though his San Antonio Spurs have now lost eight of their past nine games to the Los Angeles Lakers, MVP Tim Duncan maintains his belief that they are certainly beatable.
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| May 7, 2002
Tim Duncan will be named the 2002 MVP on Thursday
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Houston Chronicle | May 7, 2002
It is clearly time for concern.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 6, 2002
LOS ANGELES For two whole seasons in San Antonio, Samaki Walker spent his mornings pushing and perspiring, trying to do behind closed doors what virtually no one else in the NBA could do out in the open.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 6, 2002
Though he looked resplendent, dressed in a sharp tan suit, while perched at the end of the Spurs' bench for the second half of Sunday's game, it wasn't hard to notice the frustration on Robinson's face as he watched Tim Duncan rim out one shot after another.
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Houston Chronicle | May 6, 2002
The embarrassing Fran Blinebury writes for the Houston Chronicle, on a day when the two-time champions did everything but serve up the series opener on a silver spoon, all the Spurs could do was dribble down their chins.
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| May 6, 2002
Is there anything Shaquille ONeal cannot do? Freshly stitched Shaq returned from the Lakers locker room to score 13 of his 23 points to carry L.
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San Antonio Express-News | May 4, 2002
In the end, Seattle didn't stand a chance.
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