Los Angeles ? For an NBA player, it was the kind of loss that can take years to get over. Now the Sacramento Kings are dealing with it all over again.

A foul discrepancy so lopsided they couldn’t help but wonder if they were being cheated. And this week, six years later, accusations that, in fact, they were.

On the verge of playing for a championship they would have been favored to win, the Kings lost Game 6 of the Western Conference finals to the Los Angeles Lakers, 106-102. Los Angeles shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter, scoring 16 of its final 18 points at the line, to even the series.

Former referee Tim Donaghy alleged in court papers filed this week that two referees, known as “company men,” purposely ignored personal fouls and called “made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6.”

NBA commissioner David Stern and Kings owners Gavin and Joe Maloof have rejected the claims from Donaghy, who has pleaded guilty to betting on games he officiated and taking cash payments from gamblers.

But Doug Christie, remembering how his teammates felt after the game, said he still believes they might be true.

“What’s been in the dark comes to the light, and the truth can squash a lot of things. And so if this is the truth, then all of a sudden now it adds validity to things people were thinking, things that our teammates and I’m sure the coaching staffs and the Maloofs were thinking at that particular time,” Christie said.

“Just the other night they complained about 38 free throws vs. 10 for Boston vs. L.A., and we’re talking about 27 free throws in the deciding final quarter of an elimination game that has such the big, big stage from the standpoint that the defending champs are about to be put out. I mean that’s just an incredible number, and when you look at the fouls that were called, players fouling out … I mean there’s just so many different things that magnify that situation. It’s crazy.”

Christie was a starting guard on the Kings, a high-scoring group under Rick Adelman who felt it was their time to finally get by the hated Lakers.