Suns - Kings 82-89

Predrag Stojakovic scored 37 points

Phoenix, USA, May 3 (agencies) - Predrag Stojakovic scored a playoff career-high 37 points as the Kings erased a 19-point deficit to stun the Phoenix Suns, 89-82 (14-29, 22-18, 23-16, 30-19), and capture their Western Conference first-round series, 3-1.

With the victory, the Kings won the best-of-five series 3-1 to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 1981, when they played in Kansas City.

"It was a great game, a great feeling for me," said Stojakovic, who clearly got the best of his matchup with Suns second-year forward Shawn Marion. "It's great for the team, for the organization, to go to the second round for the first time in 20 years."

"He took over the game," said Stojakovic's teammate, close friend and fellow Serb Vlade Divac. "Spending almost every hour of every day with him the last three years, I'm very proud."

"There is nobody who can light it up like Peja (Stojakovic) in our league," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said. "He's the best shooter I've ever seen. You can't give him room. You just can't relax."

The Kings were 19 points behind early in the second quarter.

In the deciding game, Sacramento missed 22 consecutive shots and went more than 12 minutes without a field goal in the first half. But the Kings are nothing if not resilient.

"With the offensive people we've got, they make a couple of turnovers and miss a couple of shots, before you know it we've scored eight straight points," Adelman said. "It happens so quickly it catches people by surprise sometimes because we don't stop coming at people."

"The better team won this series," Phoenix coach Scott Skiles said. "Tonight was similar to the last game. We played very hard. I can't fault my guys' effort. You've got to play hard, but you've got to play smart, too."

The Kings move on to face the Los Angeles Lakers, with Game 1 Sunday in Los Angeles.

"We won 55 games, they won 56, and we have a lot of respect for them," Adelman said of the Lakers. "But we aren't going to back down from anybody. We have to raise our level of play if we're going to compete with them, but that's the fun part of playing in the playoffs. We're playing the world champs in the second round."