J.Ross: 5 Things You May Have Forgotten About Kings and Lakers From 2002

First off please let me apologize.  I am not trying to rip off layers of pain and scabs from the most excruciating loss in Sacramento Kings history.  June 2, 2002, now 16 years ago, is a time that will unfortunately never be forgotten by Sacramento Kings fans.  On our show we joke that we have talked about this every day since.  If that is the case we are now on day 5,994 since the game 7 home loss to the Lakers in Western Conference Finals.  That was the closest the Sacramento Kings ever made it to a title and right now they are in the decade plus long playoff drought.  As the years go by, the good and bad from the series can still be recalled but the smaller details are often missed.  The details of the series are the point of this blog and really nothing else.  You often remember the emotions of a great win and painful loss but lose the small things that helped get you there.  For example Thursday night gave us a memorable game 1 of the NBA Finals and likely until the next game we will remember the fateful decision by JR Smith, the charge/block reversed call and George Hill’s missed FT’s.  Will those details be remembered 16 years from now, heck will they even be remembered at the end of this series?

So here are some nuggets of information that I uncovered from the classic 7 game series between the Kings and Lakers all the way back in 2002.  This isn’t what we all remember, things like Horry in game 4, Bibby in game 5, the game 6 whistles or even the game 7 free throws.  So here we go….

1.  Peja Stojakovic Didn’t Play Until Game 5

So the Sacramento Kings have been in the capital city for over 30 years now.  Four players that have played here have had their jersey’s retired, Mitch Richmond, Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, and Peja Stojakovic.  The Kings were missing one of their all time greats for the first four games of the series due to injury.  Peja never started a game in the series.  He played games 5, 6, and 7 but all off the bench.  Peja’s stat line for game 5 included an 0-3 fg night on 18 bench minutes.  In the 6th game he played just 19 minutes and scored 10 points.  In the final game he played 25 minutes and grabbed 8 rebounds with his 8 points.  Peja finished the series playing just 62 minutes, going 1-10 from 3 and averaging 6 points and 5 rebounds.  Hedo Turkoglu played well in his place but I will constantly think about how the series could have been different if Peja were healthy.

2. 16 Technicals Fouls were called in the series

This rivalry was heated and both teams played their hearts out.  It was emotional.  Both teams have gone on to respect the other but these are the best athletes in the world and the competitive nature was at it’s highest.  All 7 games had at least one technical foul called.  There were a total of 16 technical fouls called and 11 of those were called against the Kings.  Vlade Divac picked up 4 of those, Chris Webber had 3 T’s and Head Coach Rick Adelman had two.  The Lakers were given five technical fouls and not one picked up more than 1.  Samaki Walker, Phil Jackson, Rick Fox, Kobe Bryant and Devean George all had 1 “T” in the series.

3.  The Kings Led Almost the Entire Series

The Lakers won the series 4-3 but the Kings led for the majority of the time.  The Lakers led by 16 points in game 1 after jumping out quickly on the Kings.  That 16 point deficit was the only time the Kings trailed by that much, in fact game 1 was the only series the Kings trailed by double digits. The Kings had double digit leads in games two, three, four and five.  In Los Angeles during games three and four the Kings trailed for a total of 16.1 seconds over two games and built leads of 27 and 24.

4. PLUS/MINUS

I am not a huge fan of the plus/minus stat that is used by the NBA.  I feel like it can be so misleading but even with that said, I looked it up.  The best plus minus player in the series was Shaquille O’Neal.  Shaq was +35 for the 7 games.  Kobe Bryant for example was -1.  That means when Shaq was on the floor the Lakers were 35 points better than the Kings for the series.  When Kobe was on the floor the Lakers were 1 point worse than the Kings.  The Kings leader in plus/minus for the series was Doug Christie.  Doug was a +30 for the 7 game series and Hedo was +26.

5.  Kobe Bryant Missed Several Game Winners

I can admit it that Kobe is a legend.  He was good in the series but had a chance to have several “moments”.  Kobe missed three different game winning or tying shots at the end of the series.  The Robert Horry shot and Mike Bibby shot will be remembered forever as classic clutch shots.  Kobe had his chance several times but didn’t prevail.  Kobe missed a driving layup before Horry’s heroics in Game 4.  In Game 5 after Bibby’s game winner, Kobe had a chance to extend the game and missed in the closing seconds.  Game 7 went overtime but in regulation Kobe missed a shot for the win.  So the soon to be Hall of Famer had 3 chances at memorable moments but missed them all.

 

Ok, after writing all of this, the wound is starting to bleed again.  I do apologize for bringing this things back up.  I was hoping that it would actually be cathartic for me, but I am now depressed.  My bad.  Go Kings.

 

 

 

 

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