THE OTHER GUYS HOT ROLE PLAYERS, RENEWED SHAQ COULD SINK KINGS.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO - Unwittingly, they set another Guinness record here Sunday: fastest team to reach ``desperation'' on the playoff cliche meter.

The Sacramento Kings flicked the needle hard to the right with their body language and their subtle admissions, suggesting that an 0-1 series deficit is no big thing, but that, yes, 0-2 would be deadly indeed.

Kings center Vlade Divac said as much - said the Western Conference finals could be virtually decided by tonight, by the conclusion of Game 2 at Arco Arena.

``If we lose (tonight), we have a 1-percent chance of winning (the series),'' Divac said, and no one among the Lakers would argue otherwise.

The Lakers put the Kings here, on the precipice of postseason disaster, with a well-orchestrated 106-99 victory Saturday, a game Shaquille O'Neal called ``one of the best games we've played in a long time.''

Finally, three victories shy of the Finals, the three-peat seekers are playing at their best. And it's made the Kings, two-time playoff victims, shudder.

O'Neal played with a smile and a hop in his step in Game 1, unburdened by the injuries and the insults of the San Antonio series. Kobe Bryant played phenomenally, and Kings coach Rick Adelman on Sunday lobbed the first Michael Jordan reference of the series.

But the Lakers' renewed strength, and the Kings' sudden concern, is The Other Guys, the ones O'Neal, aka Superman, calls his ``Superfriends.''

Rick Fox, Robert Horry and Derek Fisher combined for 38 points in Game 1 - their best collective effort of this postseason run - and, most significantly, scored 20 of those points in the first quarter, when the Lakers got a big lead and pushed the Kings onto their heels.

By the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led 36-22, and the Gang of 3 had converted 8 of 11 shots.

It doesn't happen like this often, all three finding their shooting strokes simultaneously. When it does, the Lakers go from dominating to invincible, and opponents from confident to panicky.

``There's a lot of reasons they have our number,'' Divac said, and he might as well have just listed Horry, Fox and Fisher.

``It makes it difficult for them, because they don't know what to do,'' Bryant said. ``I mean, they have to respect Shaquille down on the post and myself out on the perimeter, and they're going to have to take risks and they're going to have to gamble. Derek's been able to step up and hit shots, Robert and Rick. And it's not just spot-up shots, either, they're creating shots for themselves as well.''

The Superfriends' scoring burst put the Lakers' usual axiom in reverse, opening up opportunities for Bryant and O'Neal. It was telling that Horry, Fox and Fisher combined for 13 of the team's 20 assists.

``If you stay home with the supporting cast, then Shaq's going to go for 40 and Kobe's going to go for 40,'' Fox said. ``So as you pick your poison, it's going to be a toss-up. One game they're going to do that, and now they'll probably stay home with us, and Shaq and Kobe are going to have an unbelievable game, and then they'll go back to (double-teaming them). It's difficult, because we're confident enough to find ways to be effective.''

Fox, Fisher and Horry each hit a 3-pointer in that first quarter, which was as bad an omen as the Kings could have been served.

``When everybody's hitting,'' Horry said, ``it's kind of up the creek without a paddle.''

In the last round, the San Antonio Spurs defended the Lakers too well for anyone to have uncontested shots. But as Fox has pointed out, the Kings play defense in spurts and rarely for the entire 24-second clock.

``That's the difference really in the series,'' he said. ``We're going to get (open) shots.''

It helped, too, that O'Neal was available and active. He logged 42 minutes, scored 26 points and made 11 field goals - all of which were his highest figures since Game 3 of the first round, before he sustained ankle and finger injuries.

Close to good health, O'Neal is close to his old self.

``He's smiling,'' Fox said. ``He really has been smiling the last two days. That, from what I can read, it seems that he's in a good mood. He doesn't seem to be as hampered. ... He's come out and has actually said, `I feel good.' Every time he's said that he's responded with a game full of energy, and we need that from him.''

Add Bryant's 30 points, and the Lakers had their most complete game of the playoffs, and O'Neal said better days are ahead.

``Have we played our best? No,'' he said. ``We've played pretty good. When we play pretty good, we're almost unbeatable at times. But have we played our best? No.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `SUPERFRIENDS'

O'Neal and Bryant get the glory but when role players Fisher, Fox and Horry are on, the Lakers go from dominating to invincible

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(2) Kobe Bryant, left, high-fiving Robert Horry in the San Antonio series, has received tremendous support from the Lakers' role players.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Box:

LAKERS vs. SACRAMENTO: (Lakers lead best-of-seven series 1-0)