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The Suns got more than they could have expected from Shaquille O’Neal in his much-anticipated debut Wednesday, but they are going to need a lot more to keep up with what is now a Western Conference that is flexing its muscles in every direction.
Tide turns Lakers' way with 3rd win over Suns
SLIDESHOW: View photos from the game
Bordow: Jury still out on O’Neal’s impact
Suns have interest in another ‘Q’
O’Neal said, “I’m in better shape than I thought I was” and proved it by scoring nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter when the Suns wiped out an eight-point deficit and took a brief lead with seven minutes left.
But O’Neal’s former teammate, Kobe Bryant, answered with 13 of his 41 points in the final 9:26 and the Lakers just kept scoring to outlast the Suns 130-124, take the season series 3-1 and pull even with Phoenix in the Pacific Division race.
“We’ll get back at it and work piece by piece,” Suns coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We need to have a flow — a lot of it was ‘Shaq, get over here, get over there ... and we were just making it up as we go. But you can see the potential out there and we’ll get better.”
O’Neal played 29 minutes, grabbed nine of Phoenix’s 46 rebounds and, as expected, didn’t need to carry the offense as Amaré Stoudemire (37 points, 15 rebounds) and Steve Nash (26 points, eight assists) carried the day. But the Suns had no answers on the other end for Bryant, Pau Gasol (29 points, 13-for-19 shooting) and Lamar Odom (22 points) as the new-look Lakers shot 57 percent from the field, even without the injured Andrew Bynum.
The Suns are certainly a work in progress, but their defensive shortcomings can’t be all blamed on working O’Neal into the rotation.
Phoenix did have some strong offensive bursts, including a 9-0 run with Nash on the bench to pull even in the final quarter.
“You want to win, but if you take a step back, it was encouraging,” Nash said. “The possibilities are very exciting. He adds a heck of a lot to our team, and you can see that Amaré is going to be open a lot.”
But the Suns better not take too long working out the kinks. The Lakers won their sixth straight game and have the lion’s share of their games at home the rest of the way. They swept both games at US Airways Center after having not won here in the regular season since 2005.
O’Neal blocked three shots and altered several more. He spaced his five fouls and dished off three assists, bringing a pumped-up crowd to its feed with three hard dunks.
“I would have liked to have gotten the win, but I see us going pretty far if we play like that,” said O’Neal, who got an ear-splitting welcome from the fans during the player introductions. “I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn’t in tune with the guys. But give me four or five days and I’ll get it. A couple of times I didn’t know what was going on out there. ... I went back to my other team’s games.”
The Suns didn’t expect O’Neal to play as long or as hard — they took him out after only three minutes at the beginning of the game. But in the fourth quarter, he still had gas in the tank — playing eight of the final nine minutes.
He dove after loose balls. He ran on the break. After one Laker turnover in the fourth quarter, he sprinted the length of the floor to set up on offense.
“They didn’t want me to overdo it, but I told coach, ‘Look, I’m here, I’m ready to go,’” O’Neal said. “I really like this team. When we get used to each other, we’ll be the most dangerous team ever created.”
More...
Tide turns Lakers' way with 3rd win over Suns
SLIDESHOW: View photos from the game
Bordow: Jury still out on O’Neal’s impact
Suns have interest in another ‘Q’
O’Neal said, “I’m in better shape than I thought I was” and proved it by scoring nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter when the Suns wiped out an eight-point deficit and took a brief lead with seven minutes left.
But O’Neal’s former teammate, Kobe Bryant, answered with 13 of his 41 points in the final 9:26 and the Lakers just kept scoring to outlast the Suns 130-124, take the season series 3-1 and pull even with Phoenix in the Pacific Division race.
“We’ll get back at it and work piece by piece,” Suns coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We need to have a flow — a lot of it was ‘Shaq, get over here, get over there ... and we were just making it up as we go. But you can see the potential out there and we’ll get better.”
O’Neal played 29 minutes, grabbed nine of Phoenix’s 46 rebounds and, as expected, didn’t need to carry the offense as Amaré Stoudemire (37 points, 15 rebounds) and Steve Nash (26 points, eight assists) carried the day. But the Suns had no answers on the other end for Bryant, Pau Gasol (29 points, 13-for-19 shooting) and Lamar Odom (22 points) as the new-look Lakers shot 57 percent from the field, even without the injured Andrew Bynum.
The Suns are certainly a work in progress, but their defensive shortcomings can’t be all blamed on working O’Neal into the rotation.
Phoenix did have some strong offensive bursts, including a 9-0 run with Nash on the bench to pull even in the final quarter.
“You want to win, but if you take a step back, it was encouraging,” Nash said. “The possibilities are very exciting. He adds a heck of a lot to our team, and you can see that Amaré is going to be open a lot.”
But the Suns better not take too long working out the kinks. The Lakers won their sixth straight game and have the lion’s share of their games at home the rest of the way. They swept both games at US Airways Center after having not won here in the regular season since 2005.
O’Neal blocked three shots and altered several more. He spaced his five fouls and dished off three assists, bringing a pumped-up crowd to its feed with three hard dunks.
“I would have liked to have gotten the win, but I see us going pretty far if we play like that,” said O’Neal, who got an ear-splitting welcome from the fans during the player introductions. “I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn’t in tune with the guys. But give me four or five days and I’ll get it. A couple of times I didn’t know what was going on out there. ... I went back to my other team’s games.”
The Suns didn’t expect O’Neal to play as long or as hard — they took him out after only three minutes at the beginning of the game. But in the fourth quarter, he still had gas in the tank — playing eight of the final nine minutes.
He dove after loose balls. He ran on the break. After one Laker turnover in the fourth quarter, he sprinted the length of the floor to set up on offense.
“They didn’t want me to overdo it, but I told coach, ‘Look, I’m here, I’m ready to go,’” O’Neal said. “I really like this team. When we get used to each other, we’ll be the most dangerous team ever created.”
More...
