On a night when Los Angeles Lakers fans relived
the good old championship years, the Phoenix Suns reminded them just how
far gone those days are for the current Lakers.
Joe Johnson scored 26 points and Phoenix hit a
franchise-record 19
3-pointers in a 108-97 victory Monday night.
``When we come out and shoot the ball well from outside, we are almost
guaranteed a win,'' Amare Stoudemire said. ``Guys like Jim Jackson and Joe
are incredible from behind the arc.''
Johnson made six 3s, Jim Jackson hit seven to finish with 25 points,
and Shawn Marion had 24 points and 13 rebounds for the Suns, who won their
league-best 31st road game. Steve Nash added 15 points and 16 assists.
``They know exactly where they want to be in these situations,'' Lakers
guard Chucky Atkins said. ``With us, we don't know who's going to have the
ball or what play to make. That's the way we've been playing all year.''
As a result, the Lakers will miss the playoffs for
just the second time since 1976.
The Suns lead idle San Antonio by a full game in their bid
to land the Western Conference's top seed.
``I told the guys that we didn't play that well, but we still won, set
a record for 3s and we played great defense for five minutes at the end,
so there's a lot of positives,'' Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said.
Phoenix set the NBA single-season record with 742 3-pointers. The old
mark of 735 was by Dallas in 1995-96. Last Monday, the Suns hit a
then-franchise-record 17 3-pointers against the Lakers.
``They just 3-pointed us to death,'' Lakers coach Frank Hamblen said.
Kobe Bryant had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who lost for
the 15th time in 17 games on a night the franchise honored its 1984-85 NBA
title team that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson.
Those two, along with Michael Cooper, Bob McAdoo, Jamaal Wilkes, James
Worthy, Bryon Scott and others, were in a room signing memorabilia before
the game. Bryant said he was too intimidated to go in and talk to them.
``I idolize all of them,'' he said. ``Teams like that come along once
every so often. I don't know how in the world Jerry West and Jerry Buss
pulled that off. That's ridiculous to get all those players on that
team.''
The Suns completed their first season sweep of Los Angeles since
1992-93, when they had their best regular-season mark of 62-20.
Phoenix's Quentin Richardson sprained his left ankle in the first
quarter and didn't return.
``He said it feels pretty good, but I don't know if that means tomorrow
or if that means next week,'' D'Antoni said about Richardson's
availability.
Luke Walton came off the bench in the fourth and scored six points
early, helping the Lakers to an 89-83 lead with 8:23 remaining. But the
Suns dominated from there.
Nash and Jackson combined for three consecutive 3-pointers and Phoenix
closed the game on a 25-8 run. Bryant turned the ball over with 3 1/2
minutes left, leading to Stoudemire's fast-break dunk.
``They do such a good job running,'' Bryant said. ``They get their bigs
out and they run the floor extremely well, so you find yourself protecting
the basket and then they have shooters run to the 3-point line.''
Phoenix opened the third period with a 12-2 run for a 64-56 lead. But
the Lakers answered with 11 straight points, including five by Jumaine
Jones for a 67-64 lead.
After that, the Suns used a 13-8 spurt to take a 77-75 lead into the
final 12 minutes. Marion scored six points during the stretch and Jackson
added the team's 13th 3-pointer.
``In the spurts that we do play great in, nobody can stop us,'' Marion
said. ``In the last five minutes of the game, we stopped them from doing
what they wanted and we took them out of their game.''
The Suns hit nine 3-pointers in the first half when they trailed 54-52
at the break. The Lakers blew most of an 11-point lead in the second
quarter as the Suns went into halftime on a 17-7 run.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-12 15:33
