San Antonio Spurs

Before the playoffs began, Sacramento forward Ron Artest said the Kings were the team to beat in the Western Conference Championship.

Maybe he meant to say the San Antonio Spurs.

After a blowout victory in the opener, San Antonio seeks a 2-0 lead over a Kings team that will be without Artest when the teams meet at the AT&T Center on Tuesday.

Artest was suspended one game by the NBA on Monday for hitting Spurs guard Manu Ginobili in the head with his forearm in the Kings' 122-88 loss in the series opener Saturday. The loss was Sacramento's worst in the playoffs in team history, and aggravated the volatile Artest in the process.

Artest, whose list of career suspensions includes the longest in NBA history at 73 games for his role in the 2004 brawl in Detroit, may have been retaliating for an elbow to the mouth he took from Ginobili on the game's opening possession Saturday.

The cut inside Artest's upper lip required three stitches and seemed to alter his usually tenacious play on the defensive end. He finished with 16 points on 7-of-21 shooting and two rebounds.

Tony Parker and the rest of the Spurs took full advantage, as Parker scored 23 of his 25 points in an overpowering first half to help San Antonio to a 73-39 lead at intermission.