Lakers vs. Kings: World Peace's late dominance over Kings is hard to explain A brief chat with Metta World Peace can lead in countless directions, touching on subjects cultural, philosophical, existential and the like. Occasionally, basketball makes its way into the conversation too. But the play of the Lakers forward has for most of the season not been as scatter-shot. It has just been bad, varying only in that spectrum from, say, "awful" to "better than usual." In the Lakers' 115-107 win against Sacramento on Friday, World Peace broke out of that range and was nothing but excellent and timely. World Peace scored 15 points, eight in the fourth quarter, all of them coming in the final five minutes, after the Kings had winnowed what was once a 20-point lead to only five points. In winning time, there was World Peace. He started with a three-point basket with 4 minutes, 44 seconds left. Then he added a layup on the Lakers' next possession. And he nailed three dagger free throws with less than 30 seconds left. World Peace's play late against the Kings, when his team absolutely needed it, was nothing like his play early, when he had three points at halftime, having missed three of his four shots. The difference? His answer to that question began, as his answers often do, with the big picture. "Life is long," World Peace said. You live the first half of your life, and it might not go right, [but] the second half is going to go right. That's how I think about the game. I can be 0 for 30 ... I don't care. I feel like I'm shooting 100%. If you feel good about yourself, it'll come around. It was the first time World Peace scored double-digit points in seven games and the 32 minutes were the most he's played since he logged 34 at Boston on Feb. 9, nine games ago. "Metta is kind of like we were in the beginning of the season," Lakers Coach Mike Brown said. He'll be the first to tell you he wasn't in the best shape when he came into camp. But overall health and fitness aside, World Peace is still averaging a career-low 5.0 points. "Slumps, you know that's going to happen," he said. That's part of life. I was in slumps when I won a world championship here [in 2010]. I was in a bad slump and everybody ripped me off. Then I turned around and hit the biggest shot in the playoffs. That's likely a reference to his three-pointer late against Boston in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals, a shot that put the Lakers up by six points with one minute remaining. But with World Peace, you can never be sure, as conversations with him meander like a lazy brook. Just the same, Lakers fans can never be sure what kind of performance he'll have. They just know they've seen few this season that have been any good at all. For World Peace, "good" is how he describes his mental state, even through this slump. "I never get down on myself, no matter how bad it's going, no matter how bad I'm playing," he said. I just feel good. I prepare. I know I've prepared. As long as you prepare, that's all you can ask for. Against the Kings, he played like a pauper until the very end, when he played like a prince, rescuing the Lakers from an embarrassing defeat. twitter.com/baxterholmes