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Live or die in LA Lakers hope to avoid shocking upset
Posted: Thursday May 04, 2000 08:57 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Cassius Clay shocked the world when he knocked out heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in 1964. Joe Namath backed up his guarantee that the New York Jets would upset the Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl, and later that year, the New York Mets stunned the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Nobody thought Villanova would beat Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA title game, but the Wildcats did, and Buster Douglas' knockout of Mike Tyson in 1990 was totally unexpected. Should the Sacramento Kings beat the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Friday night to win their best-of-five first-round playoff series, it would have to rank right up there as one of the biggest upsets in sports history -- certainly the biggest shocker ever in the NBA playoffs. "Of course it would, of course," Lakers star Kobe Bryant acknowledged Thursday. "We could be (eliminated), but that's the beauty of it. This could go either or -- we win, we move on; they win, they move on." The oddsmakers predict it will be the Lakers who move on, establishing them as 10-point favorites -- a huge spread in an elimination game. "I'm not even thinking about that aspect," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said when asked where a Kings' victory would rank on the scale of upsets in sports history. "This is what makes a test, makes champions. This is what toughens you up." Jackson coached the Chicago Bulls to six championships in the 1990s. All six times they swept the first-round playoff series. "We're going to win Friday night's game, there's no doubt in my mind that we're going to win Friday night's game," said first-year Laker Ron Harper, a member of three championship teams in Chicago. There are several reasons why a Kings' victory would constitute such a huge upset:
The Kings forced Game 5 by winning twice at Arco Arena -- first 99-91 thanks to a fourth-quarter comeback, and then 101-88 by leading all the way. "We went up there expecting them to roll over," Bryant said. "They didn't, they showed a lot of resolve." Reserve Jon Barry, who scored 17 points in Game 4, is one of several Sacramento players saying the Lakers haven't shown the Kings any respect. "That's fine, we don't need their respect," he said in Sacramento before the Kings flew to Los Angeles. When asked if the Kings had earned the Lakers' respect, Bryant replied, "Oh, absolutely." Kings star Chris Webber said the pressure is on the Lakers. "We have nothing to lose and everything to gain," he said. "People expected them to walk right through the playoffs."
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