SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 11 (Ticker) -- The Sacramento Kings played
with desperation. The Dallas Mavericks played as if they were
content.
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Just 24 hours after losing in a double-overtime classic, the
Kings breezed past the lethargic Mavericks, 99-83, to even their
best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series at two games
apiece.
Hedo Turkoglu scored 17 points to lead six players in double
figures for the Kings, who fell in Game Three on Saturday,
141-137.
"I am just really pleased with our effort after last night -
that was such a huge disappointment last night, losing that
game, the way it went down," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said.
"One thing about this group, they are so resilient, they just
respond."
The Kings, who lost All-Star forward
Chris Webber for the
remainder of the playoffs to an injured knee in Game Two, wasted
little time in ensuring they would not trail by 3-1 heading
into Dallas for Game Five on Tuesday.
Sacramento, which never trailed, took the lead for good, 10-8,
on a basket by Turkoglu 4:34 into the contest. The Kings led by
just 24-20 after one quarter but extended their advantage to
52-37 at the break, and Dallas got no closer than 13 points in
the final 24 minutes.
"We just didn't seem to have much tonight, didn't have our legs,
wasn't a lot of fuel left in the tank," Mavericks coach Don
Nelson said. "I thought we tried hard. Didn't look like we
were, but I really thought we were trying."
Vlade Divac added 16 points and nine rebounds,
Peja Stojakovic
15 and 12 and
Doug Christie, 13, 11 and seven assists for
Sacramento, which allowed the Dallas to score as many points in
48 minutes as it produced in the playoff record-setting first
half of a 132-110 victory in Game Two on Thursday.
"I was trying to attack the basket, push the tempo," Christie
said. "After the double-overtime game, I had a bit of a feeling
that both teams were going to be a little bit fatigued, and I
tried to take care of myself last night and make sure that I was
ready to come out here and run as fast as I possibly could."
"They had more energy than us tonight," said Mavericks guard
Steve Nash, who had just six points and six assists after
contributing 31 and 11 on Saturday. "I thought they did a great
job with their backs against the wall. We've had a tough
schedule lately, going seven games with Portland. They just had
more energy than us tonight."
Michael Finley and
Raja Bell paced the Dallas with 16 points
apiece.
"Having won the first game, our goal was definitely to come in
here and get two," Bell said. "We're not content with it.
Obviously, we are happy that we have home-court (advantage)
back, but we're not happy with the split."
Nick Van Exel, who scored a playoff career-high 40 points on
Saturday and had been averaging 32 points in the series, was
held to five points - all in the fourth quarter - while All-Star
Dirk Nowitzki was limited to 11.
"I thought both teams were very tired but I think they had more
energy than we did, especially at the start of the game," Van
Exel said. "Christie came out and energized them, taking the
ball to the basket, attacking. That definitely got them going
and then the crowd got into it. Both teams were definitely
tired but they had more in the tank."
Nowitzki, who made only 4-of-14 shots, was ejected with 2:20
left for kicking a pile of Dallas warmup gear after picking up a
technical foul.
"Peja was terrific on Nowitzki," said Adelman of Stojakovic, who
had 39 points in Game Three. "Even though he didn't score like
he did last night, he worked his tail off and made Nowitzki
work."
Bell and Kings guard
Bobby Jackson were ejected with 1:14
remaining for shoving each other after Bell was whistled for a
foul trying to wrestle the ball free from Jackson.
"No punches thrown," Bell said. "Bobby Jackson and I basically
hit each other off our chests. It was blown out of proportion."
Neither team shot well from the arc. Sacramento made only
3-of-21 and Dallas 3-of-20.
"They outplayed us tonight," Nelson said. "It was a hard
back-to-back game for us as well as them, so I give them
credit."
"We had a good balance, played a solid game all the way
through," Adelman said. "That is what we had to do. Now it is
an even series, and we have to go to Dallas and see if we can
get a game there."