Dallas ? When Sacramento faces Dallas, confidence isn’t a problem.

Overconfidence could be.

The Kings have beaten the Mavericks eight of the past 10 meetings. They’ve won five straight in Dallas, including a 124-113 victory Tuesday night in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal, and that was far more lopsided than the score indicated.

Sacramento coach Rick Adelman was even more impressed by his team’s great performance after watching the film Wednesday. He wants them to focus on doing more of the same in Game 2 tonight.

“The thing I try to guard against is our guys thinking that just because it happened it’s going to happen again,” Adelman said. “As a coach, you don’t want your team thinking it’s going to be that easy.”

The Mavs’ mental hurdle against the Kings isn’t a lack of confidence. Their problem is being convinced the Kings believes they can do no wrong.

It’s easy to see why. The Kings have beaten Dallas four times this season, twice in blowouts and twice with buzzer-beaters.

“I don’t think they’re in our head,” Mavs point guard Steve Nash said. “But it’s in their head that they can beat us, and that’s a powerful tool.”

Dallas coach Don Nelson said his team recognized the feeling because they’ve had it against other teams, such as Houston this season. The Mavericks went 4-0 against the Rockets, winning by 13 when Yao Ming scored a season-best 30 points and taking the others by 21, 23 and 15.

“The only way to take that confidence away from a team is to beat them, probably in a playoff series,” Nelson said.

Michael Finley called it “a black cloud over us” and a “mental stranglehold,” using both phrases in the same breath.

Nick Van Exel said Avery Johnson was so frustrated that the pious point guard/assistant coach was starting to cuss.

Van Exel’s solution is to adopt an anti-Kings attitude. He believes the Mavericks need to focus strictly on themselves and stop worrying about whether Sacramento has their number.

“That’s how they go at us,” he said. “They don’t care about anything that we do. They don’t feel we can do anything to disrupt what they do.

“I think they respect us, they think we’re a good team. But once they step between the lines, they couldn’t care less about what we do. We respect them too much, more than we’re supposed to.”