A DIFFERENT PURPLE POWER.. arizona republic newspaper!!

this article is in the arizona republic newspaper in the sports section. above it hangs a huge pic enshrining this years lakers!!! sports talk hates it right now, but the truth is there.

Bob Young’s blog

The Heat Index A different purple power?

It was the purple elephant in the middle of the Planet Orange living room, and ABC’s Bill Walton finally pointed it out. The Lakers have supplanted the Suns as the top challenger to San Antonio in the Western Conference, Walton told ABC viewers during halftime of the network’s Christmas Day broadcast of the Suns-Lakers game. The Dallas Mavericks may ultimately have something to say about that, but evidently the Suns do not after losing to the Lakers for the second time in two meetings this season. As the game wore on, analyst Jeff Van Gundy also cast a vote for the Lakers, saying that if the two teams met in a playoff series the Lakers would win because they’re the more balanced club. And analyst Mark Jackson piled on, too, saying the Lakers now have more talent than the Suns from top to bottom. As much as we might like to argue, the proof was in the Christmas pudding. Walton said the Suns miss Kurt Thomas, and they do. He gushed over Lakers center Andrew Bynum, and the Suns made Bynum look so good he almost lived up to Walton’s hyperbole. He said the Grant Hill move won’t work out, and we have to disagree with that one. Hill has worked out beautifully so far. Unfortunately, he has made the Suns better only at what they already were good at — scoring. Not that Hill can’t play defense. He can. But he can’t guard the basket. Neither, evidently, can any of the club’s big men. The Lakers’ final possession of the third quarter really stood out. Kobe Bryant got the ball near midcourt and the Lakers spread out, isolating Bryant on Raja Bell. When Bynum came over to set a high pick, Bell adjusted to Bryant’s left hand, expecting help from the middle of the Suns defense. He wasn’t going to get it. Bryant drove straight down the lane as Hill took a swipe at the ball and Boris Diaw napped peacefully on the baseline. As Bryant threw down a reverse dunk, Bell raised his palms skyward as if to say, “What the heck?” He could have been speaking for all of us. The Suns just completed a fairly demanding eight-game stretch with a 3-5 record that included a victory at San Antonio, but there’s only one thing to conclude from it: They’ve got a nice team. They don’t have the championship team that we thought they had. Something is missing. Maybe it’s that as-yet-unexplained “chemistry problem.” Maybe the rest of the league simply has adjusted to what the Suns are doing. Maybe Amaré Stoudemire isn’t buying into playing center anymore. Or defense. Whatever, the Suns no longer break teams with their pace or three-point shooting. And although they never were a good rebounding or defensive team, they had a knack for getting a big rebound or making a defensive stop when they really needed it. They don’t anymore, and sometimes aren’t especially interested in trying. The Lakers, meanwhile, may have a lot more than even Bryant expected when he demanded to be traded. After beating the Suns, Bryant told reporters, “We have a solid foundation. We’ve got length, we’ve got speed, we have quickness, we have shot-blocking, we have guys that get after the ball and steal it, we have playmakers … ” And, he might have added, the Suns’ number