Big Loss Deprives Lakers of Sweep

What if the Lakers woke up one day and couldn’t shoot, couldn’t run, couldn’t slow an opponent’s conga line to the hoop and couldn’t even muster the energy to scream at each other about it?

They’d look old and slow, weak, weary and way too content with themselves to overcome a desolate start.

They’d look different from the way they’d looked all season, even at the lowest and loudest moments.

Welcome to the oddest turn yet in the Lakers’ potential championship season, a Game 4 multimillion dud in which many things were eliminated, none of them being the Phoenix Suns.

The Lakers’ hope for a second-round playoff sweep?

Gone in a nonstop, unhindered parade of Phoenix offense, which lifted the Suns to a 23-point halftime lead and culminated in a 117-98 wipeout at America West Arena.

The Suns, as would be expected from a team facing elimination, charged the Lakers from the start, Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion trampolining and tightroping their way over every inch of the floor.

But, as would definitely not be expected from a team that had won 67 regular-season games based on solid defense, the Lakers did not answer the Phoenix attack, or even resist it.

The Suns scored 38 points in the first quarter, taking a 14-point lead, then kept slugging and slugging, and soon enough it was 71-48 at halftime, the worst half of defense, statistically and by all other measurements, of the Laker season.

IN QUOTES

“We got a royal . . . whupping out there tonight. I’ve nothing to say, no questions to answer. Except to say happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there.”

PHIL JACKSON,

Laker coach

THE SERIES

Lakers lead, 3-1