The Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers will play Game 6 in their respective first-round matchups on Friday night. The Lakers will be playing to clinch the series at home against the Memphis Grizzlies, while the Kings are trying to avoid elimination at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
If the Lakers and Kings both manage to win, it would mean a rematch of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The series was marred by a lot of questionable refereeing helping the Lakers, and Bill Simmons recently joked about that being why the NBA doesn’t want the Kings to beat the Warriors.
“The league doesn’t want that,” Simmons said on his podcast about the two teams potentially facing off. “They don’t want the ’02 videos.”
The Sacramento Kings had an excellent chance of moving past the first round after taking a 2-0 series lead against the Warriors. However, some tough losses in the following games and a Game 5 loss seem to have sealed their fate in the series. It’s arguably been the most exciting first-round matchup in either conference and neutral fans will be hoping it can somehow get to a Game 7.
The refereeing in this series has also been called into question, not necessarily just in favor of the Warriors either. Players like Damian Lillard came out in support of Draymond Green after he was suspended for stomping on Domantas Sabonis. This comment from Simmons was tongue in cheek, although he is right about the videos from that series coming up being a bad look.
Game 6 Between The Kings And Lakers In The 2002 Western Conference Finals Is Wildly Controversial
The Kings faced the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals needing a win to book a berth in the NBA Finals. The Kings lost by four points in what became one of the most controversial moments in NBA history. Former disgraced referee Tim Donaghy claimed that the series had been unfairly influenced by the referees.
And the fact that they had 27 free throws in the 4th quarter alone is an excellent example of that. The NBA world almost openly acknowledges this controversy as something that likely happened too. If the current Kings can somehow come back and beat the Warriors and then beat the Lakers, they will be banishing the franchise’s demons from over two decades ago.
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