Adelman Might Start Jackson

SACRAMENTO —  King Coach Rick Adelman didn’t rule out replacing Hedo Turkoglu with Bobby Jackson for Game 2 on Monday. Jackson certainly was a far more capable replacement for injured swingman Peja Stojakovic in Game 1.

Rick Fox smothered Turkoglu’s every move, holding him--literally, according to Turkoglu--scoreless on eight shots in 29 minutes. Jackson darted past the Lakers for 21 points on nine-for-15 shooting in 25 minutes.

“I’ll think about it,” Adelman said of starting Jackson as part of a three-guard setup Monday. “Bobby was terrific. He really got us going in the second quarter and in the second half. We need contributions from everybody. We’ll go back to the drawing board and find a better way to beat this team Monday.”

With Fox hounding him, Turkoglu seemed to be pressing. He forced shots and was neutralized to the point that Adelman played him for only 12 minutes in the second half of the Kings’ 106-99 loss to the Lakers.

“Of course, they foul me, they grab me, but I don’t want to make excuses,” said Turkoglu, who was starting for Stojakovic, an All-Star who sprained his right ankle in Game 3 of the Kings’ conference semifinal victory over the Dallas Mavericks. “I have to play through that and help my teammates in the second game.

“They really need me and I didn’t make any shots. I played a bad first game, but I have to keep my head up. I wasn’t nervous. I was feeling good at home before the game. I learn from this. I have to go to the hole and get fouls and create something for my teammates. I had a bad game. All the other guys did a good job. Something was missing. It was me. They were really missing me. I have to do better in the next game.”

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With Stojakovic out for at least the first two games of the conference finals and perhaps longer, the one thing that concerned Adelman going into Game 1 was foul trouble. The Kings got into it in the second half, with Doug Christie, Vlade Divac and Chris Webber each picking up his fifth foul in the fourth quarter. Christie fouled out with 13.8 seconds to play.

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Divac, on the Kings’ 36-22 deficit and the Lakers’ 16-for-24 (66.7%) shooting in the first quarter: “We played bad in the first quarter. Or they played excellent. However you want to look at it. This game wasn’t fun. I didn’t have fun. Obviously, we put ourselves in a big situation in the first quarter. I am not really happy with the tempo of the game at the beginning. In the second, third and fourth quarters, we played well. But we didn’t have the energy to finish up.”