Rivalry Week Is Up in Air

By Mark Heisler

March 24, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

What do you call it when your basketball team, which has been successful, if unimpressive, and hasn’t beaten either of the top two teams in its conference, plays both in three nights while one of its stars commutes from his court case in Colorado?

“The norm,” the Lakers’ Rick Fox said Tuesday, laughing.

It’s the season like no other, from start to finish. Today, Kobe Bryant is scheduled to be in court in Eagle, Colo., and will then try to fly back for tonight’s game against the Kings, who have won both previous meetings.

Bryant will return to Colorado on Thursday, hoping to be back for Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have won the three previous meetings.

The Kings are the Lakers’ bitter rivals, but the nature of the rivalry has undergone changes.

The Lakers once ruled. The Kings have won the Pacific Division title the last two seasons and, barring turnarounds, are about to make it three in a row.

The Lakers no longer go out of their way to hurl insults, such as Shaquille O’Neal’s “Queens.” It’s the Lakers who now talk hopefully of things that might go wrong with the Kings, such as problems integrating Chris Webber.

It’s also the Lakers who have been getting upset at the way the Kings celebrate, as when Coach Phil Jackson complained about Mike Bibby’s duckwalk after Bibby had made the game-clinching shot in their last meeting here Feb. 26.

That was an eye-opener for the Lakers. They were without Karl Malone, but the Kings were without Webber, Brad Miller and Bobby Jackson. Aside from that, it’s just rivalry as usual.

“We continue to carry the same amount of respect that we’ve always carried for them,” Fox said, “which is a healthy taste of dislike and an understanding that they want what we have or they want to basically bury us. So that makes for great basketball....

“I think they see themselves as a peer. They’re a peer in that we all work in the NBA. And we’ve all had stretches of success individually and collectively as teams. But we’re all judged on one thing. It’s evident, we lose to San Antonio, they go to win the championship, our team is broken up....

“You know what? San Antonio is a peer. They won a championship.... And the day the Kings make it to the Finals or win a championship, I’d be the first to stand up in front of ‘em and congratulate ‘em. I’m just not a big fan of people who talk like they’ve done something, and they haven’t done anything....

“Whether they leave it on the floor during the regular season or it’s their style -- I’ve been adamant that their style of play gets exposed during the playoffs. A running team can be slowed down by the patience of the opponent. We can dictate the tempo when we choose to, when we’re smart and we play intelligent.”

Fox has been the rivalry’s interface, issuing challenges, battling with Peja Stojakovic in games and fighting Doug Christie in a 2002 exhibition.

The Christie part is over, even if Fox misses it. With Fox newly returned in the last meeting, Christie extended a fist before the game and welcomed him back.

“He took a little bite out of me right there by telling me it was nice to have me back and good to see me after my injury,” Fox said. “It was like getting punched in the stomach. It was like, you know what? I really don’t need to hear you say that....

“I would say he was the bigger man. He was. He was the bigger man. ‘Cause I hadn’t gotten to that place yet.... I couldn’t be mad at him, but it did tee me off....

“My issues are with Peja. He’s out to embarrass me. He’s out to torture me.”

Of course, one man’s celebration is trash talking to his opponent, so Fox harks back to a late-season game when his own approach was to coast into the playoffs.

“[Stojakovic] hit a couple shots and Webber started yapping and he started yapping with Webber too,” Fox says. “It just got me. They were trying to get his confidence going and so he made a couple shots and Webber’s yelling, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, bust him!’ And he was, like, ‘Yeah!’

“I was, like, ‘Hey, man. Look, boss, I’m letting you run around here quite freely right now so calm down.’ ”

That’s something else that has changed. As recently as the 2001 playoffs, Fox’s physical play all but took Stojakovic out of their second-round series, holding him to 7.5 points a game.

Stojakovic is now a two-time All-Star, having his best season, averaging 24.8 points. In the last meeting, he scored 37 and made seven of 11 three-pointers.

The Kings were always a great offensive team but never as efficient as now, ranking No. 1 in shooting (46.6%), three-point shooting (40.2%) and free-throw shooting (79.2%).

“I’m starting to shift my mind, my best defense is going to be some offense against him, maybe,” Fox said sheepishly.

One thing remains the same. The loser is bent on payback.

“Absolutely,” Malone said. “If anybody says it isn’t, they’re lying.”

TONIGHT’S GAME

LAKERS vs. KINGS

7:30 p.m. at Staples Center, ESPN, Fox Sports Net

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Affairs of State

A look at how the Lakers have fared against Sacramento since Phil Jackson became coach before the 1999-2000 season:

1999-2000

Home: 2-0 Road: 1-1 Overall: 3-1

Postseason: Won first-round series, 3-2.