ONE MORE THING FOR THE MAVS-KINGS FILE: John Hollinger: Mav-Wrecks.

Right now, the Kings are so good that they lost a sure-fire All-Star to injury and are 6-2 since he left, with both losses coming in overtime. They're so good that Scot Pollard has been injured all year and nobody's even noticed. They're so good that they took Hedo Turkoglu, who nearly won the Most Improved Player award last year and would get 20 a game in Cleveland, and basically told him, "Sorry, but there's no place for you to play right now." They're so good that one of the league's most explosive young players, Gerald Wallace, is Turkoglu's backup.

I thought Sacramento would win the title before this season, but Dallas' hot start and new commitment to defense has had me wavering. Now that the Kings are reasonably healthy, (although still missing Pollard and Jackson, which would have lesser clubs whining about a year lost to injuries) we have seen their full power unleashed.

I'm not just saying this based on last night, although that was certainly impressive. The last six games, overall, show that the train has more or less left the station, and it ain't stopping until June. Winning by 26 over the Heat won't raise too many eyebrows, but how about winning by 25 at Milwaukee? (By the way, that was also the last time the Bucks lost -- they're on a four-game win streak.) How about beating the Nets in their own building by 36? How about stringing together those three games in a five-day period? They played three games and their victory margin was +87. That's inhuman.

Above link will disappear eventually, so when it does look for the 1/16/03 column in John's From The Baseline archive.