May 6th: "Not Even Close: Suns Rout Lakers in Game 7" Pre and Post game Atricles.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 3:39 pm    Post subject:

LA Lakers at Phoenix
Preview - Box Score - Recap - Series Breakdown
Game Info: 8:30 pm EDT Sat May 6, 2006
TV: TNT Add to Calendar
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PLAYOFF SERIES: Western Conference first round; tied 3-3.

Point guard Steve Nash believed the Phoenix Suns could react positively or negatively after falling behind 3-1 in their first-round series to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Suns have responded with two wins, forcing a decisive Game 7 at US Airways Center against the Lakers.

Phoenix tied the series at three games apiece with Thursday's 126-118 overtime Game 6 victory at Los Angeles despite a playoff career-high 50 points from Kobe Bryant.

"When your backs are against the wall, you can react two ways," said Nash, who led the Suns with 32 points and 13 assists. "Obviously, we've reacted positively. There's been some great games -- a lot of drama as well, a lot of controversy."

Tim Thomas forced overtime by making a 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left in regulation, and Boris Diaw and Shawn Marion each scored six points in the extra period.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:49 pm    Post subject:

Experience Says the Answer Is at End of the Road
May 6, 2006

Well, I can't say there's no way the Lakers win Game 7 in Phoenix. Not after I spent all day Thursday saying there's no way there will be a Game 7 in Phoenix.

If the Suns could overcome the daunting tasks of playing without starting guard Raja Bell and having Dick Bavetta officiate a game in which the NBA would benefit from the home team's winning, then the Lakers have a chance to beat the overwhelming odds that favor home teams in Game 7.

A chance. Not a big chance, but a chance.

"It could happen," Lamar Odom said. "Sports … anything can happen."

Start with the one thing the Lakers have in their favor: the best playoff road performer of this era.

"Whatever the game demands, Kobe's going to rise to the occasion," Phil Jackson said.

Combine that with the knowledge that the Lakers played well enough to win in two of the previous three games at US Airways Center, and there's the wick and wax for the candle of hope burning in Laker Land.

Even though those are only two things going for them, it's more than what's going against them. But that one is a biggie: their inexperience.

As I looked around the Laker locker room before Game 6, I noticed that the nameplates of Kobe Bryant and Devean George stood out from the rest of their teammates.

"Bryant" and "George" are written in longer, narrower letters, in the font that was used when the Lakers first moved to Staples Center. This isn't a critique of the interior design but an observation of how few of the players on this team have been through the playoff battles that defined the Lakers in the first half of the decade.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:13 pm    Post subject:

Not Even Close: Suns Rout Lakers in Game 7

© 2006 The Associated Press

PHOENIX — After a series full of nail-biters, the Phoenix Suns put the Los Angeles Lakers away cleanly on Saturday night, winning 121-90 in the decisive Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:19 pm    Post subject:

Phoenix 121, LA Lakers 90
Preview - Box Score - Recap - Series Breakdown

By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer
May 6, 2006

Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant (8) tries to slip past Phoenix Suns' Raja Bell (19) during the second quarter of Game 7 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Saturday, May 6, 2006, in Phoenix.
AP - May 6, 9:46 pm EDT
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PHOENIX (AP) -- So much for the nail-biting suspense of a Game 7. The fast, feisty Phoenix Suns won in a 121-90 laugher over the listless Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

Leandro Barbosa led the layup parade with a career playoff-best 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting and the Suns became the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1. They are just the third team -- and first in 36 years -- to lose three games in a row in a series and come back to win it.

That all-L.A. second-round series that looked so probable a few days ago vanished in a blur of Suns' fast breaks and repeated drives to the basket.

Instead, the Clippers will come to Phoenix for Game 1 of the second-round series on Monday night.

The Brazilian Barbosa and Frenchman Boris Diaw led the way. Diaw had 21 points and nine assists as seven Suns scored in double figures. Shawn Marion had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Steve Nash 13 points and nine assists.


Kobe Bryant scored 24 points of 8-of-16 shooting, but the rest of the Lakers starters were 17-for-50.

Raja Bell returned to a hero's welcome from a one-game suspension for throwing Bryant to the floor in Game 6. He scored 13 points and drew three offensive fouls against Bryant.

The Lakers -- after losing 126-118 in overtime at home in Game 6 Thursday night -- barely offered resistance Saturday night, cutting the lead to single digits only once after falling behind 28-13 in front of a raucous packed house.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:21 pm    Post subject:

Suns streak past Lakers for Game 7 clincher
Phoenix unstoppable on offense, frustrate Kobe on defense in 121-90 win

Updated: 11:09 p.m. ET May 6, 2006

PHOENIX - So much for the nail-biting suspense of a Game 7. The fast, feisty Phoenix Suns won in a 121-90 laugher over the listless Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

Leandro Barbosa led the layup parade with a career playoff-best 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting and the Suns became the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1. They are just the third team — and first in 36 years — to lose three games in a row in a series and come back to win it.

That all-L.A. second-round series that looked so probable a few days ago vanished in a blur of Suns’ fast breaks and repeated drives to the basket.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 8:45 pm    Post subject:

Suns Erase 3-1 Deficit, Eliminate Lakers
Bob Baum, AP Sports Writer
8:13 PM PDT, May 6, 2006

PHOENIX -- So much for the nail-biting suspense of a Game 7. The fast, feisty Phoenix Suns won in a 121-90 laugher over the listless Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

Leandro Barbosa led the layup parade with a career playoff-best 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting and the Suns became the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1. They are just the third team -- and first in 36 years -- to lose three games in a row in a series and come back to win it.

That all-L.A. second-round series that looked so probable a few days ago vanished in a blur of Suns' fast breaks and repeated drives to the basket.

Instead, the Clippers will come to Phoenix for Game 1 of the second-round series on Monday night.

The Brazilian Barbosa and Frenchman Boris Diaw led the way. Diaw had 21 points and nine assists as seven Suns scored in double figures. Shawn Marion had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Steve Nash 13 points and nine assists.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2006 10:24 pm    Post subject:

Complete effort — Suns get solid bench play to blow past Lakers
By Bob Baum
Associated Press
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns went from the brink to a blowout, from the edge of elimination to one of the most impressive turnarounds in NBA playoff history.
Image
Andrew D. Bernstein, Getty Images
At right, the Suns' Shawn Marion rises to the hoop as the Lakers watch during Game 7.
So much for the nail-biting suspense of a Game 7. The fast, feisty Suns won in a 121-90 laugher over the listless Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.
Leandro Barbosa led the layup parade with a career playoff-best 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting and the Suns became the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1.
"I am going to steal a line from Disney and say it's a small world after all," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I guess small guys can play. That's about as good as we could play. Every one of our guys, I can't pick out one, all of them had an amazing game."
That all-L.A. second-round series that looked so probable a few days ago vanished in a blur of Suns' fast breaks and repeated drives to the basket.
Instead, the Clippers will come to Phoenix for Game 1 of the second-round series on Monday night.
"It's a shame we couldn't have given them a better game," said the Lakers' Phil Jackson, who lost a first-round series for the first time in his coaching career.
Kobe Bryant scored 24 points of 8-of-16 shooting, but the rest of the Lakers starters were 17-for-50. Bryant scored only one point and took just three shots in the second half.
"If we were going to get back in this type of game, we have to have everybody contributing," Bryant explained.
He said his team played about as well as it could in taking its 3-1 series lead, then couldn't keep up when the Suns found their footing.
"They just have a lot of talent over there," Bryant said, "a lot of firepower. They stepped up to the challenge and kept coming at us in waves. We just didn't have enough in the tank to hold on."
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