Lakers Fall In 7

game7 LA Daily News: The last time Phil Jackson coached in a game this big, in this building now known as US Airways Center, his Chicago Bulls clinched their third consecutive championship with a victory in Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals.

“For me personally, it’s a comfortable arena to have to come and play in,” Jackson said before the Lakers took the court Saturday for Game 7 of their Western Conference first-round series. “But we’ll see how the players react to it.”

They reacted worse than Jackson could have imagined, even for the youngest team in the NBA playoffs. The Lakers were crushed 121-90 by the Phoenix Suns and looked like a one-man team in the first half that didn’t know if it was coming or going on defense.

The Suns led by 17 points after the first quarter and the Lakers stayed in the game, at least marginally, with Kobe Bryant scoring 23 of his team’s 45 points in the first half. Bryant took only three shots, however, in the second half and scored just one more point.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t give them a game today,” Jackson said, “and make the series that it was memorable in the seventh game. You could see early on that things were going to be a little bit strained for us this game.

“The first five minutes of the game on, it seemed like they were a step quicker and a step better offensively and defensively.”

At least there was some gallows humor in the 31-point loss. Jackson said one of his assistant coaches told him to tell the reporters in the interview room that the Lakers got “screwed by the officials” and that was why they lost.

“That was about as good as we can play,” Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said.

The loss completed a stunning collapse for the Lakers, who led the series 3-1 after Bryant’s two last-second shots at the end of regulation and overtime in Game 4. Jackson’s teams had been 44-0 in playoff series in which they held a lead.

“When you’re up 3-1,” forward Lamar Odom said, “it’s too late to blame it on youth.”

Odom, one of the few Lakers with previous Game 7 experience from his time in Miami, finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists on 5-for-14 shooting. He was asked what the team needs to do for next season.

“Watch this game over and over this summer,” Odom said. “Know what it feels like to lose a game like this on somebody’s home court the way we lost it. Take that hurt with you in the summer.”

Jackson had led teams to the second round in all 14 of his previous seasons as an NBA coach. But Phoenix stunned the Lakers at Staples Center in Game 6 as Tim Thomas sank a 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

Leandro Barbosa led Phoenix with 26 points in 31 minutes off the bench, with D’Antoni later saying Barbosa might have been the fastest man on earth for a 10-minute stretch in the game. Boris Diaw had 21 points and Steve Nash added 13.

“We let that team run and get layups,” Odom said. “Nobody hit the floor.”

Jackson could have used John Paxson - the hero of the 1993 Finals - to hit a shot in the first half. Bryant was spectacular in connecting on four 3-pointers and scoring 18 points in the second quarter, but the rest of the Lakers looked decidedly unprepared for prime time.

The Lakers’ four starters other than Bryant combined to make just 6 of 24 shots in the first half and couldn’t hit anything longer than an 8-footer. Kwame Brown finished the game 2 of 10 with eight points, Smush Parker was 4 of 13 and 1 for 6 from 3-point range.

“We had jitters today,” Jackson said. “Our guys were fumbling the ball and not catching the ball and not shooting the ball in the lane with that kind of decisiveness that made us good.”