Suns Lose, but They ‘Made Lakers Play Their Starters’

Any possibility of a title wave in the Pacific--the Phoenix Suns passing the Lakers in the final games of the regular season to win the division championship--disappeared Friday night. An impressive home-court streak went under with it.

On the night the Lakers clinched the Pacific Division title and the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference playoffs, the Suns were humbled by Houston, 112-101, before a capacity crowd of 14,471 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in a game the Rockets led by 22 points at the end of the third quarter.

But for this Phoenix team, which was picked to finish fourth or fifth in the Pacific Division by most, pushing the Lakers this far was a victory in itself, even while they were losing at home to a Western Conference opponent for the first time this season.

“The Lakers are the best team in the conference,” said Eddie Johnson, who had 18 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for the Suns. “Everybody knows that. But one thing we did accomplish, we made the Lakers play their starters all the way down to the wire. Usually, they like to rest guys like Kareem and Magic and Worthy around now. But they couldn’t do that this time. That may benefit Portland and the other teams that play them in the playoffs.”

Phoenix, which had a nine-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 28-1 at home against the West, will meet either Houston or Denver in its first-round matchup. The Suns (54-27) enter the playoffs as the No. 3 team, which means they will probably have to go through Utah just to reach the conference final.

Center Akeem Olajuwon had 26 points, 16 rebounds and eight blocked shots for the Rockets.