Overtime Too Heavy for Lakers : Game 5: Miller, a 300-pound rookie center, has nine points and five rebounds in extra period to fuel Suns’ 112-104 victory.

Call them cocky, call them lucky, call the Phoenix Suns escapees from the greatest upset in NBA playoff history.

The Suns, sparked by Charles Barkley’s 31 points and 14 rebounds, beat the Lakers, 112-104, in overtime Sunday to become the first team to rebound from two home losses to win a best-of-five NBA series.

The Suns escaped after scoring the first seven points of overtime as Barkley and center Oliver Miller grabbed every loose ball in sight.

Barkley’s strong finish after a stuttering start would have meant nothing without Miller’s overtime--nine points and five rebounds--after he scored only eight in regulation. Miller finished with 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

“I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way,” said Miller, a 6-foot-9, 300-pound rookie who reached a peak of 340 pounds before going to a weight-loss clinic at midseason.

“If I had lost the weight to begin the season, I could have played this way all year. I didn’t do as much as I could have in the first half, but I came back in the second and worked my butt off.”

Said Barkley: “The team was worried about Miller’s weight problems during the season. There were a lot of times he wanted to give up, but we stayed on him. All the anxiety he caused us, he’s making up for now.”

The Suns, who will play the San Antonio Spurs during the second round starting Tuesday, made good on coach Paul Westphal’s prediction of victory after they lost the first two games at America West arena.

“They were fantastic and they just showed what they were made of,” Westphal said of the Lakers. “We are very fortunate to get past them.

“I’m not gloating at all. I feel very humble to be able to escape with this win. The reason I said it (the prediction) was because I believed we had a better team. They didn’t make it easy.”

The Lakers, the only team in the playoffs with a losing record, had three chances to beat the team with the league’s best record and become the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed.

Led by James Worthy’s 24 points, the Lakers had a chace all the way to the end of regulation, but Byron Scott’s three-pointer with the score tied at 95 bounced off the rim.

“I knew it was a little short,” Scott said. “Danny Ainge hit the palm of my hand just when I released it.”

Said the Suns’ Kevin Johnson, who almost saw his 24-point, 13-assist performance wasted: “The Lakers should have been elated to have one shot to win the game and win the series. I’m sure they couldn’t have imagined before the series started to have one shot with no time on the clock to win the game. They didn’t and we just came out fired up in the overtime.

“I’m proud of our defense, proud because we had our backs against the wall the whole series, proud because we had our backs against the wall again in the fourth quarter. But we showed our tenacity, our desire, and we never quit.”

Barkley and Johnson refused to let the Suns fold after a brilliant season and link up in NBA infamy with two other notable nose dives: the 1981 Lakers, who in defending their 1980 title lost in the first round to Houston; and the 1984 Philadelphia 76ers, who also went from defending champions to first-round losers against New Jersey.

Barkley was emotionally worn out and physically drained.

“When you play as hard as we did, your tank goes to empty,” he said.

Barkley made his first shot, a three-pointer, as the Suns took a 9-2 lead, then made only one of his next eight shots of the first half while Phoenix struggled to a 46-45 lead at halftime.

The Lakers, errorless during the first quarter and aided by seven Phoenix turnovers, rode power forward Elden Campbell’s nine points during a 13-2 streak to take a 15-9 lead. But Phoenix made up for its sloppy passing by ruling the backboards, 14-7, and tied the score at 24 with two seconds left on two free throws by Barkley.

With Barkley on the bench at the start of the second quarter, Dan Majerle scored the first eight points for Phoenix on a drive and two three-pointers to put the Suns ahead by 32-28. Majerle showed no effect of flu that required treatment at a hospital earlier in the day.

But as the Suns tried to break the game open by stepping up the tempo, they were thwarted by more turnovers that let the Lakers stay within one at the half despite 43% shooting.

Phoenix finally seemed to find its stride with a 13-2 run that featured a rebound by Barkley and a full-court drive that drew Laker center Vlade Divac’s fourth foul with 4:03 to go.

Barkley scored 13 points during that quarter, more than offsetting the 10 points on five-for-five shooting by Divac, and the Suns cut down their turnovers to two to carry a 78-71 lead into the final period.

The Suns seemed in control, comfortably ahead with Divac on the bench with five fouls, but the Lakers tied the score at 87 with 3:40 left as Worthy made three short jumpers and a three-pointer during a 4 1/2-minute span.

“He was demanding us to give him the ball,” Scott said of Worthy, “and when he gets in that mode, it’s pretty hard to stop him.”

Campbell’s dunk on an offensive rebound with 1:30 to go put the Lakers ahead for the first time since the second period. Sedale Threatt’s drive with 1:08 left gave the Lakers a 95-91 lead.

But Barkley wasn’t finished, making a long jumper and muscling a rebound after Threatt’s jumper missed. Then Majerle tied the score at 95 on an off-balance shot.

The Lakers had the ball now with a chance to win, but after a timeout, the desperation shot by Scott bounced away.

“I’m real proud of this team,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said. “This organization has never been happy with losing, and that’s what we did. From that standpoint, it’s bitterly disappointing.

“Charles Barkley used the description of it being like a boxing match, and it was a championship fight in the first round.”