The minions of Mordor/The Empire/Hades/Los Angeles have arrived for a biannually special day in Sacramento – Lakers Day.

At some point (probably March, when the Lakers come back) I want to discuss at some length why this is still a rivalry to us, even though our truest current enemy has to be Golden State. Everyone who believes in their heart that Sacramento is a cowtown and all Sacramento fans are yokels will write a hundred times that this rivalry means everything to us and nothing to them. I sincerely beg to differ, but now is not the time.

What's the time? To check in with a co-patriot in blogdom, Kurt from Forum Blue & Gold. Here is the result of a short Q&A session on the Lakers as of Thursday, January 4, 2007:

Many thanks to Kurt for the always astute insight. (And be sure to check in to FB&G often to see what's up in LaLaLand – Kurt has a nice group of mostly rational commenters who help in painting the pictures.)All that said, let's get to the stuff.

The Kings are 5-point favorites against a team which is nine games over .500. I really must be missing something. Why does Vegas love the Kings so much? I think the margin will be less than five.

It's a TNT backend, with Chaz Barkley sharing his pearls of… something. Enjoy, friends!