Suns Find a Forum to Show That They Have Come of Age

Cotton Fitzsimmons was not the NBA’s coach of the year in 1990. He won that last year, when his team went to the Western Conference finals before losing to the Lakers in four straight games.

This year is better. His Phoenix Suns beat the team that is coached by the coach of the year in the Western Conference semifinals.

To do that, they beat the Lakers twice at the Forum, including Tuesday night’s 106-103 victory to end the best-of-seven series in five games.

Before Game 1, the Suns had not beaten the Lakers at the Forum since 1984. It had been even longer since Fitzsimmons had won a game at the Forum.

“I believe it was right after Lincoln was assassinated,” he said Tuesday night. Actually, it was 1974.

Fitzsimmons knew all along that this is the way the Suns would have to do it if they were to contend for the NBA championships, by winning at the Forum.

“Every time it seemed like the Phoenix Suns were going somewhere in the past, it was the Los Angeles Lakers who were in their way,” he said. “I said when the season started that if anybody is going to the finals from the Western Conference besides Los Angeles, they’re going to have to drive the team bus right through the Forum.”

The bus driver was surprisingly low-key but characteristically gracious after one of the most satisfying victories of his 17-year NBA coaching career.

Like his team, he maintained his composure.

It must be a comfort to the young Suns when they look to the bench in a spot like they were in after one quarter Tuesday night and see that their coach looks as if he has just gotten up from a nap.

Now, we can start the game, he must have told them.

It was as apparent to him as to everyone else in this series that the Lakers had no knockout punch.

“They came out and gave us all they had,” Fitzsimmons said of the Lakers, who had a 15-point lead entering the second quarter. “They kept coming and coming. But we kept our composure. My team never gave up. We kept clawing and scratching.”

He later called the Suns his “little bitty guys.”

He stood behind the comment he made before the series began that his team was a 100-1 shot to beat the Lakers.

But he didn’t believe it.

“Last year, I was very proud of my team,” he said. “We won 55 games after winning only 28 the year before. The Lakers beat us four straight (in the playoffs), but some people forget the fact that the games were tough. Whatever they needed at the end of those games, Magic took. Ya’ll wrote that they swept right through us.

“I didn’t buy it. I thought we were close. I didn’t think we were this close.”

Kevin Johnson is the player that Isiah Thomas is supposed to be, the real Pocket Magic. He even has the right last name.

There is no doubting him now. After he played less than his best in the first two games, the Suns’ coaches told him that he was thinking too much, that he was taking only what the Lakers gave him. They told him to take what he wanted.

He was the second-best Johnson on the court Tuesday night, but not by much. While the Lakers’ Magic scored 43 points and had seven assists, the Suns’ Kevin had 37 points and eight assists.

It didn’t matter who the Lakers put in front of him, Byron Scott, Larry Drew or Michael Cooper, none could prevent Kevin Johnson from driving into the lane and creating a basket.

He also doesn’t back down. The Lakers’ 7-1 center, Vlade Divac, threw the ball at Kevin Johnson early in the game. Johnson later paid Divac back with a forearm to the Adam’s apple.

“We had a good ballclub last year, and we improved it in December when we added Kurt Rambis to the ballclub,” Fitzsimmons said. “He taught us how to win.”

That’s something Rambis should know after spending so many years with the Lakers. Not even one year with the Charlotte Hornets could make him forget it.

“I thought I’d finish my career in Charlotte,” said Rambis, who joined the Hornets last year as a free agent. “I figured I’d played my last playoff game.

“It’s a thrill just to be back in the playoffs. To beat the Lakers is unbelievable.”

About that time, Magic Johnson entered the Suns’ dressing room, headed straight for Rambis and wrapped him in a bear hug.

That broke up Rambis for a moment. He lost his train of thought until he was asked if the Suns’ victory represented a changing of the guard.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, you can’t count the Lakers out of anything as long as Earvin Johnson is around.”

Except for this year’s playoffs.