Heavyweights, blow for blow.
19-18 Phoenix, 4:13 left in the 1st.
D-Fish at the FT line. 20-19 Lakers.
Shaq tosses up a brick; condor-winged Lamar gets the roll from soft touch inside, on the other end. 22-19 LAL.
This is a rockin' matchup, and the score shows it.
Kobe drives and slams. Finger-lickin' good. Some Sun scores.
Kobe scores again. 26-21. Nash throws it away, Lakers ball.
I missed the next play, Shaq ends up stuffin' it for the Suns, gets fouled, misses the FT. 26-23 Lakers.
Jump ball.
Shaq ends up at foul line again, makes 1 of 2. But 28-24, 'cause Kobe scores again.
Back and forth, strong D, finally, Barbosa nails a 3 for the Suns, 29-29.
Phenomenal super dunk by Kobe (f*ck the finger prob) to close the 1st quarter, Lakers 32-29 over the Suns.
I turn away from the TV to play a song on my guitar, and before ya know it, 45-32 Lakers. Yeah. Then 45-34.
Luke doinks a jumper; Hill makes it 45-36, then Bell, I think, makes it 45-38. Oops 10-0 Suns run. 45-42 Lakers, time-out.
Odom-etered FTs makes it 53-47 Lakers with 4:31 left in the half; Pau on the bench, 3 fouls.
Shaq out-grapples for a rebound, is fouled at 53-50, goes to the line. Doink. Doink.
Ronny Turiaf with a good-lookin' fall-away, 55-50, Deep Water rules.
Nash -- swish -- 55-52. 3_somethin' left in the half.
Lamar lands a loping basket, D-Fish, Ronny, add-on, 61-52. Kobe stuffs. 63-52. Pinky rules.
Gasol is still on the bench with 3 fouls.
Lamar at line, 1 of 2. I think Barbosa knocks down a 3, 65-57 Lakers at the half.
Pau Pau scores both inside and outside, back-to-back, 69-61 in the 3rd, after Nash scores at other end.
The great boxing match continues, while I play songs. You can never score too many points against the Phoenix Suns. 95-91 after 3 quarters on Pau's last sec Kareem-y hook.
2nd unit: Luke inside for 2. Turiaf blocks Stoudemire. Sascha buries a long 2. 99-93 Lakers.
105-97 Lakers, 8:51 in the game.
After a 9-0 Suns surge, Lakers trail by a sliver of 1 pt.
Come cracklin' back with their own 8-0 run, with Pau's emotional slam dunk putting an exclamation point on 114-108 lead with 5:52 left. Pau at the FT line too. 115-108, Lakers.
Crap, goaltending (bad call) on Casol on Shaq's shot. The Diesel had just put in 2 shots from the field. Kobe comes back to make it 117-114.
117-115 Lakers, with 2:59 remaining.
123-117 Lakers with 1:15 left on strong D and a Pau pow.
Kobe's got 41 -- What effin' pinky prob? Shaq who? Oh, he was OK, breakin' in with the Suns, but the Lakers have upgraded beyond whatever Shaq can add to the Suns playoff picture. And Bynum can take his time comin' back, heal up good. Sweet.
130-124 Lakers. They grab 1st place in the Pacific Division, and the 2nd best record in the Western Conference, at 37-17. Gotta love it.
