Suns Outlast Lakers to Force Game 7
By JOHN NADEL
LOS ANGELES – Tim Thomas spent most of the regular season in a strange state of limbo.
Thomas has been a member of the Phoenix Suns for two months after spending most of the season at home. Without him, their season would probably be over.
Thomas made two huge 3-pointers, Boris Diaw and Shawn Marion each scored six points in overtime, and the Suns beat the Los Angeles Lakers 126-118 Thursday night to force a Game 7 in the first-round Western Conference playoff series.
Thomas signed with the Suns on March 3, two days after being waived by the Chicago Bulls, who acquired the 29-year-old forward from the New York Knicks last summer. Thomas played only three games with the Bulls. After complaining about his role, he was told to leave the team.
Thomas has been a perfect fit for the Suns, who have been playing without injured big men Amare Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas.
Kobe Bryant scored all but one of the Lakers’ 13 points in overtime, and finished with a career-playoff high 50. But it was all for naught, and now, the much-anticipated Battle of L.A. is in jeopardy.
Game 7 will be played Saturday night in Phoenix, where the second-seeded Suns beat the Lakers 114-97 to send the series back to Los Angeles for Game 6. The home team has a 75-17 advantage in NBA playoff Game 7s.
“Our place is going to be crazy on Saturday,” Thomas said.
“We know it’s going to be a tough game at home,” said Steve Nash, who led the Suns with 32 points and 13 assists. “We feel like we’re better at home. Our team feels good with the opportunity to play for the series.”
In other playoff action Thursday night, New Jersey beat Indiana 96-90 and Miami downed Chicago 113-96. The Heat and Nets will meet in the second round of the playoffs after winning their Eastern Conference first-round series in six games.
Thomas forced the overtime by making a 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Bryant, the hero in Game 4, tried for another winner at the buzzer, but Marion got a piece of the ball and it fell short of the basket.
“It was a normal shot,” Thomas said. “I had missed the last two. It felt good when it left my hands. I wasn’t concerned about the atmosphere.”
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he thought his team did a good job defending at the 3-point line until the shot by Thomas.
“Both teams shot exceptionally well and played a lot of good offensive basketball,” Jackson said. “But that is their style, and we need to do a lot better job of playing our style on Saturday. For them, it would be a terrific comeback. For us, it would be a monumental upset.”
The Suns shot 56.8 percent to the Lakers’ 55.3 percent. Los Angeles won the rebounding battle 39-31, but committed 20 turnovers to 14 for Phoenix.
Two baskets by Diaw and another by Marion gave the Suns a 113-109 lead with 2 1/2 minutes remaining in overtime, and Thomas’ 3-pointer with 1:41 left put Phoenix ahead by seven. The Lakers weren’t closer than five points after that.
“I felt the Lakers were tight down the stretch,” Thomas said. “They don’t have too many guys with experience in these types of situations. They wouldn’t take the shots; they kept passing to Kobe.”
The winner of the series will face the Clippers, co-tenants of Staples Center with the Lakers. Two teams from Los Angeles have never met in postseason play in the NBA, NFL or major league baseball.
Leonardo Barbosa, starting for the suspended Raja Bell, scored 22 points for Phoenix. Thomas had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Marion had 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Diaw added 19 points and seven assists.
Bell was suspended for one game after clotheslining Bryant in Game 5. Bell was the Suns’ best defender against Bryant, a job Barbosa had Thursday.
“I had to play well because Raja wasn’t there,” Barbosa said. “I can’t wait to hand Kobe back to Raja on Saturday.”
Said Nash: “Leandro was great. He stepped up offensively and battled Kobe. Kobe made a lot of shots, but they weren’t easy. We did this for Raja.”
The Lakers had won eight straight games at Staples Center, including Games 3 and 4 of this series.
“We can win in Phoenix,” said Lamar Odom, who had 22 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. “We played this game well enough to win, but we came up short.”
Kwame Brown had 17 points and nine rebounds and Devean George came off the bench to score 14 for the Lakers.
Only four No. 7 seeds have won playoff series in 42 opportunities, counting this series, since the current playoff format was adopted in 1985.
“We were able to get the lead late in the game, but were not able to secure that one rebound and Tim Thomas hit a big 3,” Bryant said. “We’re going into a hostile environment. We look forward to it. Let’s get it on.”
The Suns are trying to become the eighth NBA team to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win a best-of-seven series.
Nets 96, Pacers 90
New Jersey advanced as Richard Jefferson scored 30 points and Vince Carter added 24 to offset the career-high 40 points of former Net Anthony Johnson. Jason Kidd had eight points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds for the Nets, who outrebounded Indiana 44-30.
Jermaine O’Neal scored 21 points for the Pacers, who played without Peja Stojakovic for the fourth time in the series because of a sore right knee. The team’s second-leading scorer in the regular season, Stojakovic played in Indiana’s only two wins in the series.
Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left to make it 92-90, and after a miss by Carter, Indiana had a chance to tie. Johnson missed in close and O’Neal got the rebound, but Jefferson blocked his putback. Nenad Krstic then made two free throws with 14 seconds left.
Heat 113, Bulls 96
Shaquille O’Neal had 30 points and 20 rebounds and Dwyane Wade added 23 points as Miami ended a couple of playoff streaks against Chicago. The Heat were 0-9 in postseason games in Chicago and had lost three previous playoff series against the Bulls.
Chicago’s Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon scored 23 and 21 points, respectively, after shooting a combined 6-for-29 in Game 5. The Bulls missed 11 of their first 12 shots in the game and finished 31-of-75 (41 percent).
The Bulls pulled within 97-88 on Gordon’s three-point play with 4:58 left, but the Heat scored the next nine points, the last two a dunk by O’Neal with 3:06 left.