Take their "SportsCenter" away from them.

Who ever would have thought that the Kings could be accused of nonchalanting their way through a game?

Yet that was one of the few criticisms that could be thrown at the Kings on Friday night, when they rolled past the Charlotte Hornets 106-95 before a sellout crowd of 17,317 at Arco Arena.

Kings coach Rick Adelman didn't need a stat sheet to realize his charges had thrown the ball around the arena like they were playing a summer-league game. They tried alley-oops, behind-the-back passes and thread-the-needle conversions.

That's how you end up with a season-high 25 turnovers that were converted into 31 points. "We had 25 turnovers, and most of them were casual passes," Adelman said. "I really thought we had a chance to put (the Hornets) away and we couldn't do it. But it still is a good win. If you had told me we would be heading off for this Eastern road trip at 5-3, I would have taken it in a heartbeat."

The five-game road trip that begins Sunday afternoon against Minnesota figures to tell a great deal about the Kings.

Friday, rookie point guard Jason Williams helped spark the Kings by scoring 14 of his season-high 25 points in the first quarter. Williams made four consecutive three-pointers during a 4:38 span of the period and led the Kings to a 25-10 advantage. His four three-pointers tied an Arco record for threes in a quarter.

"Charlotte's defense seemed like it was just backing up," said Williams, whose father, Terry, stepmother, Karen, and girlfriend, Denika, sat courtside. "It was like they wanted to keep me out of the paint. I felt good about the open shots."

The Kings' long-distance marksmanship alone was too much for the Hornets. Sacramento sank 10 of 22 from long range, while Charlotte missed all 10 of its attempts. But the same high-flying act that the Kings used to get the lead allowed the Hornets to climb back within 31-28 to start the second quarter. And that was even though Charlotte's heart didn't seem to be into it. The Hornets played without Glen Rice (elbow surgery), Anthony Mason (out for season with ruptured biceps tendon) and B.J. Armstrong (inflamed right knee). That meant firepower was low, and Charlotte's energy appeared even lower.

Kings center Vlade Divac and guard Vernon Maxwell played for the Hornets last season, and neither really was courted to return. Divac said playing against his old team was tough.

"Strange, yeah?" he said about facing the Hornets. "That's why I had (eight) turnovers. I kept giving the ball to David (Wesley) and Bobby (Phills) ... you know, familiar faces."

Adelman went to his bench late in the first quarter and received more solid performances from his reserves than he did from his starters. Maxwell scored a season-high 16 points, hitting 4 of 9 from three-point range, and Lawrence Funderburke was strong for the third consecutive game, scoring 16. Jon Barry did not score but had a team-high five assists and four steals in 17 minutes.

Chris Webber, who had 14 points and 13 rebounds for his eighth consecutive double double, recognized that his team did not really play well.

"We didn't play to our level, but you have to expect that there are going to be some letdowns sometimes," Webber said. "We didn't want to come in and look sloppy, but it's good we got it out of the way before we play Minnesota and we still got the win. We had a very emotional week, but we came out of it all right and did some stuff nobody expected us to do."

Sacramento led by as many as 20 points in the second quarter, but Charlotte whittled the deficit to seven late in the third. Adelman went back to his reserves, however, and they quickly grabbed control of the game.

"If I would have seen one more lob pass, that would have been it," Adelman said. "The one that Vlade threw to Jason that he caught with one hand finally worked. I told Vlade the odds were with us. One of them had to work. Vlade told me he wanted to go back into the game because he thought he had a triple double ... in turnovers. I told him I knew I wouldn't have to leave him in long to get it."