Kidd Hangs In There but It's Not Enough

By MARK HEISLER

May 11, 2000 12 AM PT

What mismatch?

Walking on eggshells, trying not to limp, the undermanned Phoenix Suns turned their series with the Lakers into a contest, for a night, anyway, even if all it got them was a 97-96 loss, an 0-2 deficit and broken hearts.

The Suns didn’t even know if they’d have their best player, Jason Kidd, until game time, having watched him spend the two days between Games 1 and 2 getting his surgically repaired left ankle X-rayed, probed and iced.

Coach Scott Skiles went into the game determined to play Kidd if he could go, but yank him fast if he saw the slightest trace of a limp, as in Wednesday’s Game 1.

Of course, even the hard-bitten Skiles had to admit these weren’t ideal circumstances under which to upset the Lakers on their home court.

“Yeah,” Skiles sighed before the game. “I mean, I suppose, but everybody has their unique set of problems this time of year.

“This just happens to be ours. We can’t complain. There are 21 teams on vacation. We’re still playing. We’ll just have to make the best of it. I feel like if we play hard, we’ll play well. If we play well, we’ll win.”

Darned if it didn’t almost happen.

The Suns beat a fat-and-happy-looking Laker team to loose balls all night. The Suns outrebounded them, 43-37, and got 17 offensive boards to the Lakers’ nine.

They couldn’t deal with Shaquille O’Neal. So what else is new? O’Neal scored 38 points, but the Suns even cooled him off when they had to, using Hack-a-Shaq to put him at the line with 2:18 left, after which O’Neal bricked both free throws, one off the front rim, one off the back.

Opting not to let the Suns hack his most valuable player again, Laker Coach Phil Jackson put the ball in Kobe Bryant’s young hands, going against Kidd, who was now into his 43rd minute.

Kobe went right. Kidd cut him off. Kobe crossed over on the dribble and came back left. Kidd recovered. Kobe went up. Kidd had a hand right in his face. Kobe made the shot anyway.

Some nightmares, it goes like that.

The Suns started the night, hoping Kidd would play . . . but not sure.

“Unless something bad happens, more than likely he’ll start,” said Skiles an hour before the game. “And then we’ll take a look at it. Unless when he warms up, he says he just can’t go.

“He feels like it feels better right now and we’ll see. If he’s favoring it, seems like he’s limping or whatever, he’ll just come out and that will be it . . .

“Jay and I have talked. He doesn’t want to do anything to hurt himself or the team, either. I mean, he’ll let me know, I’m sure, before I even notice. If he feels like he can’t go. And one thing we have to fall back on is the fact that we’ve played without him already and we’ve won some games without him already too, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.”

The Suns did win nine of the 15 games they played without Kidd at the end of the season, and they did take a 2-1 lead over the Spurs--without Tim Duncan--before Kidd returned in the Game 4 victory, but these were the Lakers, in Staples Center.

The Suns, who would’ve been underdogs even if they were injury-free and at the top of their game, were reduced to hoping their best player could go, and waiting to see what happened, while trying to play the game too.

“As a team, as players, we’re not letting ourselves get caught up with whether Jason’s going to play,” said Cliff Robinson before the game, “because we have to go out there and play, whether he plays or not. We definitely would love to have him out there, but we don’t want him out there hobbling. We don’t want him out there, putting himself at further risk. . . .

“He’s not a small part of our club, definitely not, but at the same time, we’ve dealt with injuries all year, so this is just another situation we’ll have to deal with, if he’s not playing.”

Kidd survived pregame warmups, made it into the starting lineup and stayed out there for 19 of the 24 minutes in the first half.

He didn’t exactly look like vintage Jason . . . until the second half when his shots began dropping and he began hurling himself into the lane. He wound with something resembling a Kidd line, 13 points, eight rebounds, six assists.

In the end, he was right where he was supposed to be, on the court, leading his teammateswith the game on the line and his hand in Bryant’s face.

It’s just that sometimes, it still isn’t good enough.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Scoring Breakdown: Lakers 97, Phoenix 96

Starters vs. Bench

Lakers

Bench: 24

Starters: 73

Suns

Bench: 13

Starters: 83

Team Breakdown