Suns Blot Out Lakers

The team that Jerry Buss envisioned when he dismantled the Lakers last summer lit up America West Arena on Tuesday night.

Too bad for the Laker owner it wasn’t his team.

The quick-hitting, high-energy Phoenix Suns ran, jammed and three-point-bombed their way to a 125-99 victory over Buss’ reconstructed team, delivering a virtual knockout blow to the Lakers in front of 18,422 at America West Arena.

The loss, coupled with the Denver Nuggets’ 94-91 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies earlier in the evening, mathematically eliminated the Lakers from the playoff chase with two weeks still to play in the regular season.

They’ve lost 12 of their last 13 games and, less than a year after reaching the NBA Finals for the fourth time in five years, won’t qualify for the playoffs, leaving them on the outside looking in for the first time since 1994.

They’re 11th in the West, a half-game behind the Clippers.

Weeks in the making, their ouster from playoff contention for only the fifth time in franchise history was met not with hand-wringing but resignation.

“Stuff happens, man,” said Kobe Bryant, who sat out because of a bruised muscle next to his right shin. “This is the path that we’re on right now. We will bounce back and we will be back. This is the course of action that we have to take, and we’re going to take it. We’re going to take our lumps and get back up to the top.”

In the locker room, the playoff chase wasn’t even discussed.

“Nobody said anything about us being eliminated or anything,” Coach Frank Hamblen said. “It wasn’t even mentioned.

“I think in their minds we were eliminated before tonight’s game.”

The Suns, meanwhile, have pieced together a similarly astounding, albeit more encouraging, reversal of fortune. Only one game better than the last-place Clippers a year ago, 27 games behind the first-place Lakers in the Pacific Division, they have shot to the top of the Western Conference with the NBA’s best record.

They improved to 57-17 while making a club-record 17 three-point shots against the Lakers, sending the visitors to their ninth consecutive road loss.

Former Clipper Quentin Richardson made seven of 14 three-point shots and led the Suns with 25 points. Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points on nine-of-13 shooting. Shawn Marion had 22 points and 12 rebounds. Steve Nash had nine assists.

With Bryant watching the game from behind the Laker bench, Caron Butler was the Laker scoring leader for the fourth time in seven games, finishing with 30 points on 12-of-22 shooting. Chucky Atkins had 14 points and eight assists.

“You never expect this, especially with all the talent that you have in here and the preparation we take to prepare for games,” Butler said of the Lakers’ failure to make the playoffs. “We fell a little short in a lot of games.

“A lot of things have gone wrong, but you’ve just got to be professional. We did a good job of that but, obviously, not making the playoffs is devastating.”

The Suns, averaging more than 110 points a game, are the NBA’s highest-scoring team. They lead the league in three-point shooting percentage.

They run. They gun. They make the game fun.

“I think it’s good for the sport,” Hamblen said before the game. “They have a unique way of playing. They go small and they get up and down. It’s very entertaining. It’s been very successful. I take my hat off to [Sun Coach] Mike D’Antoni and his staff. This is the way they want to play and they got it over to their players. I think it’s great for the NBA....

“You’d better have your track shoes on when you play them.”

The Lakers stayed close early, making seven of their first 12 shots, but couldn’t keep pace with the high-octane Suns, who scored 70 points in the first half to take an 11-point lead.