Walker Shot Has Adelman Up in Arms

SACRAMENTO —  The headline in the Sacramento Bee sports section read: “How Horry-ble.” But other than continuing to call Robert Horry’s three-pointer lucky, the Kings had no problems with the shot that beat them at the buzzer in Game 4.

King Coach Rick Adelman was troubled by another buzzer-beater, however. Adelman, after finally seeing what NBC’s viewers did, was upset Monday that Samaki Walker’s three-pointer before halftime counted. Replays clearly showed the ball in Walker’s hands as time expired.

“NBC had it frame-by-frame,” Adelman said. “How hard is it to take five seconds to look at [the replay] and make the right call? Every other sport has it [video replay]. It’s going to happen in the off-season, but it doesn’t help us now.... I never saw it until I got home. I slowed it down and you could see all zeros behind him as he shot the ball. What are you going to do?”

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Peja Stojakovic worked out harder than he has since spraining his right ankle May 9, but Adelman termed his status “doubtful” for Game 5 tonight at Arco Arena. Stojakovic is expected to work out again this morning and a final decision about his participation will be made at game time.

“Peja has not really practiced with us,” Adelman said. “He’s not gone one-on-one. I think Peja wants to play so badly right now. He’s progressed a lot. He worked harder today than he has. [The Kings’ medical staff] wants to see what soreness he has [today]. That’s the thing. He’s had a lot of soreness after his workouts.”

If Stojakovic can’t play, Adelman will again start Hedo Turkoglu at small forward. Turkoglu had his best game of the conference finals Sunday, scoring 18 points and taking 12 rebounds in 43 minutes.

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No question, the Lakers got physical with King point guard Mike Bibby in the last three quarters Sunday. Kobe Bryant’s pressure limited Bibby to seven points after he had scored 14 in the first 17 minutes.

But were they too physical?

“I petitioned the league to outlaw the bump-and-run,” Adelman joked. “Phil [Jackson, Laker coach] complained about us manhandling his 350-pound center [Shaquille O’Neal]. Well, they’re manhandling our 150-pound point guard. I don’t see why the rules change. If they’re not going to call [the rough stuff], we have to find a way to help Mike out.”

With that said, Adelman said Bibby did too much dribbling in an attempt to beat Bryant down the floor. Adelman wants the Kings to pass the ball down the court and/or have others bring the ball up.

“He’s got to let the other guys take the ball up a little bit more,” Adelman said. “I think we can adjust to that. We knew eventually they would put Kobe on Mike. It was only a matter of time.”

Said forward Chris Webber: “They caught us off guard with Kobe on Bibby. We know he’s a scorer. He’s going to get tired. We’re not intimidated. He’s going to get picked-and-rolled to death.”