Nobody’s Perfect, Not Even Rodman

Shaquille O’Neal’s luggage got lost and didn’t make it back from the Lakers’ recent six-game trip. The sharpness and occasional brilliance the Lakers displayed in the late stages of that trip didn’t make it back, either.

Plagued by 18 turnovers and an inability to stop Sun guard Jason Kidd in the second half, the Lakers saw their nine-game home winning streak end Wednesday with a 106-101 loss to Phoenix at the Forum. The loss also was their first in 12 games with Dennis Rodman in the lineup, and it prompted cheers of “Eddie, Eddie!” in honor of traded guard Eddie Jones.

It also prompted some introspection from the Lakers.

“The whole system broke down,” said Glen Rice, who scored 14 points. “Defensively, we weren’t there when we needed to be. They got a whole lot of fastbreak points. . . . We’ve got to work together if we want to accomplish anything.”

Kidd scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half as the Suns (14-13) ended a three-game road losing streak. Kidd also had 10 assists and seven rebounds as the Suns held their own against Rodman and the Lakers (19-10) and rallied in the second half.

“Tonight, they were kind of daring me to take pick-and-roll jumpers from the free-throw line, and I made a couple,” he said.

He made more than a couple, far more than the Lakers could withstand.

“Jason Kidd literally took the game over in the third quarter with some of his heroics,” Derek Harper said. “As a result, we’re sitting here discombobulated, looking for answers.”

Shaquille O’Neal had only one point in the final quarter and eight in the second half, although he had 24 points, one fewer than team leader Kobe Bryant.

A first-quarter 10-0 run that gave the Suns an 18-4 lead sparked boos from the sellout crowd of 17,505, but those jeers turned to cheers when Rodman entered the game with 6:43 to play in the first quarter. It was Rodman’s first home game since he left the team for personal reasons, a hiatus he ended Sunday at Orlando.

While Rodman remains unpredictable, the Lakers have become predictable in one fashion: their tendency to fall behind early and make a furious comeback in the second half. If they do it subconsciously as a challenge to themselves, they created a stiffer than usual challenge Wednesday. They were also being outrebounded, 10-3.

However, the insertion of Rick Fox into the lineup gave them new life, and they overcame their early rebounding and shooting problems before the quarter ended. They held the lead for the rest of the quarter and extended it to a 54-49 margin at halftime.

“We got back into the game and had a nice little run and then we started turning the basketball over,” Laker Coach Kurt Rambis said. “It’s just mental mistakes, the way we turned the ball over.”

Turnovers plagued the Lakers early in the third quarter, and Kidd took advantage of them twice to help the Suns stay close.

Rambis had few words for his players after the game, frustrated that they couldn’t build on the momentum generated by their victories at Orlando and Dallas. “We don’t come out hard,” he said.

Said Harper: “It’s very, very disappointing. We have no one to blame but ourselves. These starts are killing us and we have to find a way to start better. We’re not there as a team, plain and simple. We’re up, we’re down. We’re up, we’re down. We need work as a basketball team.”

The game momentarily took on a nasty tone late in the third quarter, when Rodman got into a confrontation with Sun guard Gerald Brown. Fox had fouled Brown hard, wrapping his hands around him and flinging him to the floor to prevent Brown from scoring. As Brown got up, he appeared to make a hand gesture and may have also made some remarks; Rodman quickly stepped in front of Brown and the two began shoving. Fox was assessed a flagrant foul and Brown and Rodman were each given a technical foul.

The Lakers had a 75-69 point before the hard foul, and that’s when Kidd began to take over.

“You never want to point fingers, but collectively all of us can be a little more effective on the basketball court,” Harper said. “I looked at the clock and saw 75-75 and I knew we were in trouble.”

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