Best in West Will Reign Supreme

Whew. Finally. All even.

Forty-two wins each. Twenty-three games remaining for both.

Amid the dust stirred by the swatting of another irrelevant Eastern Conference gnat Tuesday night, an old friend appeared.

This wasn’t about the New Jersey Nets, it was about the Sacramento Kings.

For the next six weeks, it’s about the Sacramento Kings.

The Lakers defeated the Nets on Tuesday, 101-92, in a game that sounded like a starter’s pistol.

Not because the Lakers blew an 18-point lead and needed late, lofted three-pointers from Derek Fisher and Devean George to catch their breath.

Not because the Nets kept scratching and pulling on the giants with the likes of Aaron Williams and Lucious Harris.

And not, finally, because Shaquille O’Neal welcomed home Net Coach Byron Scott by telling him where to stuff his Hack-a-Shaq, making six of 10 free throws in the final minutes to cinch it.

No, the game was a beginning because it pulled the Lakers into a dead tie with the Kings for the best record in the league and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.

“Really?” asked O’Neal earlier when told about the possibility. “I didn’t know that. Thank you.”

Ah, but he did know that. Coach Phil Jackson talked about it Tuesday morning.

“I mentioned to the team the fact that we had an opportunity,” Jackson said. “We want to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Then the Lakers thought about it Tuesday night, when they went into their desperation no-Kobe offense.

Dump it to Shaq. Pass it to Shaq. Hand it to Shaq.

With Kobe Bryant serving the second and final game of his suspension for fighting, the Laker attack was as typical as it was inevitable.

And the Nets, the team with the best record in the East?

Just like every other team over there.

Good shooters. Can’t stop Shaq.

Lots of offensive rebounds. No earthly idea how to stop Shaq.

Tough mentality. No earthly idea how to stop Shaq.

“The big guy, like I said before, he’s unstoppable,” Scott said.

O’Neal scored 40 points and missed just five of 21 shots to compensate for the loss of Bryant, while the Nets could not overcome the loss of their own slugger, Kenyon Martin.

Jason Kidd is supposed to be an MVP candidate, but he looked like that same guy the Lakers used to embarrass in Phoenix, missing 17 of 25 shots.

Fans jeered him by filling the Staples Center with “M-V-P” chants for, you guessed it, O’Neal.

“They’re at home and he’s well deserving of those chants,” Kidd said.

Keith Van Horn, their renewed forward who outrebounded O’Neal, looked like the only Net who could give the Lakers matchup problems this spring.

But the Lakers already knew their biggest hassle will not come from the East.

Which brings us back to Sacramento.

A team which, given the right conditions and inspiration, could figure out a way to beat the Lakers this spring.

The only team in the league with that chance.

If the Lakers wind up meeting the Kings in the playoffs, as they have in the last two seasons, it is imperative that the series begins and ends in our palace, not their barn.

The Lakers didn’t need homecourt advantage last season against San Antonio.

But make no mistake, they will need it now.

If they didn’t have it two years ago against Sacramento, they likely would have never made it out of the first round.

This is a better Kings’ team. From top to bottom, this may be an equal Kings’ team.

They have played each other twice this season, each winning on their home court, with the Lakers outscoring the Kings by just two points in the two games, 184-182.

They played each other twice more, once in Sacramento on March 24, and then in the season finale here April 17.

Catching them is bigger than just avoiding the extra game in the loudest, tightest arena in the league.

Catching them is huge.

As in, 7-foot-1, 335 pounds.

The Lakers would love to be able to get a couple of games on the Kings so O’Neal can take one more break before the playoffs and rest his feet.

“We’ve ridden Shaq’s coattails now the last two games and now it’s time for us to start getting this whole team game together,” said Jackson.

For that to happen, one thing definitely needs to not happen.

Bryant, as mentioned here earlier this week, cannot be suspended for something silly again.

How much did the Lakers miss him Tuesday night? With three minutes remaining and the Lakers leading by nine, an exhausted O’Neal trudged to the bench.

About a minute later, the Lakers led by only four, and Jackson was shaking his head, and O’Neal was walking back to the scorer’s table.

If it wasn’t for a resurfacing of the Laker role players, things could have been much worse.

There was Robert Horry, playing big defense and grabbing 13 rebounds.

There was Fisher, scoring eight of the team’s final 13 points.

There was the same familiar bench buzz that helped carry the Lakers through their toughest nights of the last two springs.

“Even though they have one guy who’s pretty good in Kobe being out, they tend to play a little bit better when everybody moves the ball and everybody knows they’re going to get shots,” Kidd said. “I’ve seen it done in previous games.”

And, then, in the end, there they were.

The Lakers and Kings, together again.

Precisely where they started the season.

Undoubtedly where they will end it.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected].