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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Two large birthday cakes for Vlade
Divac sat on a table in the center of the Sacramento Kings' locker
room. Only one slice had been cut from each of them.
The way the Kings finished their latest victory left the entire
team without much of an appetite.
Chris Webber got 41 points and 15 rebounds, then blistered his teammates' ears in a postgame lecture after the Western Conference leaders blew much of a huge lead before hanging on to beat the
Vancouver Grizzlies 105-95 Friday night.
"I really don't know what the problem was, but there's no excuse for it," Webber said. "Great teams don't do that."
The NBA's best home team beat the league's second-worst road
team in a game that looked like a blowout for three quarters.
Sacramento led by 29 in the third and by 22 entering the fourth,
but a lengthy Vancouver rally cut the lead to 10.
The Kings' starters returned to the game, and Webber scored 10 late points as Sacramento held off the Grizzlies, who shot 60 percent in the fourth quarter and never got closer than nine points, but caused plenty of consternation for the Pacific Division leaders.
"That fourth quarter was awful," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman
said. "That was something you never want to happen. Those guys off
the bench have been great, but tonight they didn't get the job
done."
With 14 points in the fourth, Webber ended up with his second-highest point total with Sacramento, but the All-Star shook his head in disgust as he walked off the court -- and he voiced his disgust in a heated postgame discussion that kept the Kings' locker room closed much longer than normal.
Webber repeatedly has said his free-agency decision this summer
will hinge on whether the Kings want to win as badly as he does.
"It's a mental approach, an attitude, and that's what I keep talking about," Webber said. "We can't feel sorry for a team. Nobody felt sorry for Sacramento before we got here, did they?"
The Kings won their third straight, while Vancouver lost its
14th straight road game. While Sacramento had a bad fourth quarter,
the Grizzlies had three bad quarters and fell too far behind to catch up.
"It's gut-check time around here," center Ike Austin said. "Only a few guys are playing hard every game. We keep doing the same thing -- getting down by 20 points, then making it close at the end."
Sacramento, which improved to 20-4 at Arco Arena, led by 20 points in the opening minutes of the second quarter and shot 52 percent in the first three quarters.
But led by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the
Grizzlies made a 16-4 rally against Sacramento's reserves and
continued to threaten until the final seconds.
When Adelman yanked four reserves -- Bobby Jackson, Jon Barry,
Lawrence Funderburke and Hedo Turkoglu -- and reinserted four
starters with 4½ minutes to play, the Kings' usually jovial bench
turned somber.
"I kept waiting for us to get a stop or make a basket, but when it got to 10, that was it," Adelman said. "I thought I gave those guys a lot of time to correct the situation out there.
The Kings' postgame tongue-lashing from Adelman and Webber could
be heard outside the locker room.
"It was pretty embarrassing to finish like that," said Divac,
who had 13 points and 10 rebounds before his 33rd birthday on
Saturday. "We think we're a better team than that."
Abdur-Rahim had 27 points and nine rebounds, while Mike Bibby
added 23 points and eight assists. Abdul-Rauf had 10 of his 14
points in the fourth quarter.
"We played a terrible first half," Vancouver coach Sidney Lowe
said. "This is a team that can score. They had their way with
us."
The Kings improved to a conference-best 31-12 while beating
Vancouver for the ninth time in 10 meetings. The Grizzlies lost for
the 11th time in 13 games and fell to 3-18 outside Vancouver.
Webber shot 15-of-23 from the field -- including 4-of-5 in the
fourth quarter -- and hit 10 of his 11 free throws. He even hit a
3-pointer, his first of the season.
Game notes
Sacramento, which opens a five-game road trip Sunday
against the Lakers, will be on the road for the next two weeks -- the Kings' longest road stretch of the season. ... Before the game, the Kings signed vice president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie to a multiyear contract extension. ... Vancouver center Bryant Reeves missed the game because of the flu. ... Sacramento has a 17-5 overall record against the Grizzlies.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Vancouver Clubhouse
Sacramento Clubhouse
RECAPS
Indiana 103
Denver 94
Orlando 123
Philadelphia 117
Miami 91
Atlanta 80
New York 95
New Jersey 71
Boston 102
Detroit 95
LA Lakers 93
Charlotte 87
Sacramento 105
Vancouver 95
FROM
ATHLETESDIRECT
Mike Bibby Official Site
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