Kidd’s Ankle a Concern, but He Plans to Play

Jason Kidd did not practice Monday afternoon at America West Arena as the point guard rested his left ankle. He said he plans on playing in Game 2 Wednesday but preferred to see how he responded to rest and treatment before making an announcement.

Kidd, who missed the final 15 regular-season games after undergoing surgery on his broken ankle, tweaked it Sunday early in the 105-77 Laker win at Staples Center.

“It’s still a little sore but overall I feel good,” said Kidd, who played a shaky 39 minutes, scoring only three points on one-for-six shooting and committing a game-high five turnovers. “I just feel like I was pressing and rushing things.”

Kidd said he heard something pop in his ankle in the first two minutes of Sunday’s game when he drove for a layup and pushed off the left foot.

Precautionary tests came back negative.

Penny Hardaway said he understands his backcourt mate’s predicament.

“I’ve been in that situation before and I know what’s going through his mind--a lot of pain not being able to do the same things you’re normally used to doing,” Hardaway said. “You know, it’s tough. We’re going to rally behind him and he’ll just give us all he has.

“Being a friend and being a teammate, I’ll tell him to just do whatever he can and we’ll do the rest.”

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Coach Scott Skiles was being roasted in the Arizona papers and on the Phoenix airwaves Monday, and it had nothing to do with the 96-degree day.

He was being ridiculed for playing one man on Laker center Shaquille O’Neal, who punished Phoenix with 37 points and 14 rebounds.

“Shaq had a big night and we worked on some things today in practice and we’ll work on some more tomorrow,” Skiles said. “But the fact of the matter remains that we have to take better care of the ball and we have to rebound the ball.”

The Lakers scored 28 points off 23 Phoenix turnovers and outrebounded the Suns, 52-42.

“You can’t give a team 28 points off of turnovers and expect to win very many times,” Skiles said.

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Rookie small forward Shawn Marion had a good first half against the Lakers’ Glen Rice.

Marion, Phoenix’s 1999 lottery pick from Nevada Las Vegas, had eight points at halftime but only four after the break.

He said the Suns had their most success when they moved the ball, rather than settling for jump shots on the strong side in the second half, when the game got uglier for the Suns than Kidd’s dye job.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball better and the key to our offense is to get the ball to the weak side,” Marion said. “Going to the weak side, finding the open man cutting.”