Lakers win to set up the Suns

By Mike Bresnahan

April 19, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO —

The sun finally set on the regular season, and, once again, the Lakers will find themselves in Phoenix.

They earned the right to a rematch, and possibly playoff redemption, although it will be nothing short of a longshot, after defeating the Sacramento Kings, 117-106, in the regular-season finale Wednesday at Arco Arena.

Jordan Farmar started another game, Kobe Bryant finished it by tucking away a second consecutive scoring title, and the Lakers (42-40) held on to clinch seventh place in the Western Conference, winning a tiebreaker with red-hot Golden State because of a better head-to-head record.

Game 1 in the best-of-seven first-round series against the Suns will be Sunday in Phoenix at noon. Game 2 is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., also in Phoenix.

The Lakers avoided the Mavericks (67-15), who own the league’s best record, but will get the Suns (61-21), who have lingered in the Mavericks’ shadow and in the minds of the Lakers since the season began, when Phil Jackson and his staff dusted off a tape of the team’s ill-fated Game 7 and forced themselves to digest it.

Break out the memories of a year ago, some of them acceptable to Lakers fans, and many of them unfathomable.

The Lakers took a 3-1 edge, then found themselves in a world of trouble in Game 6 thanks to Tim Thomas, and, ultimately, let the Suns become only the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing, 3-1.

And all that without the Suns’ All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire.

“They’re the team that we want to play,” forward Lamar Odom said. “They’re the team that we lost to. We had them 3-1 last time. That’s a good start. We didn’t finish it. Hopefully we can play well enough to take it to a seventh game, and it would be anybody’s series.”

It will again be Raja Bell against Bryant. Odom against Shawn Marion. The Lakers’ underwhelming defense against the Suns’ overpowering offense. And Steve Nash against Farmar or Smush Parker, perhaps the most important match-up.

The seventh-seeded Lakers against the second-seeded Suns. Play it again, and again, somewhere in the range of four to seven times before it’s over.

“We definitely think we can win it,” forward Luke Walton said. “We think it’s going to be hard. I think we showed last year that when we play at our pace and play the way we need to, we can win ballgames. When it comes to playoffs, you can stay in games, make it come down to the end, and then you have Kobe on your team, you always have a good shot.”

The Lakers were 45-37 last season, rolling into the playoffs with an 11-3 push before shoving Phoenix to seven games. A year later, their swagger has turned to stagger, the Lakers closing with a 4-8 slump and beating only one team with a winning record since the All-Star break.

Only one champion in the NBA’s 60-year history didn’t finish in the top four in its conference: Rudy Tomjanovich’s 1995 Houston Rockets, who were No. 6 in the West. The Lakers would rather not think about that.

The Suns, who won the season series with the Lakers, 3-1, apparently don’t believe a playoff series against them will last long, or so Stoudemire said last week.

“I don’t think it would go seven,” he told reporters in Phoenix. “I think we would take care of them pretty quick, hopefully, if everything goes as planned.”

Bryant understandably disagreed when asked about it Wednesday.

“Well, we’ll put his clairvoyance to the test,” he said.

The Lakers were tested by the Kings for most of Wednesday’s game, finally pulling away halfway through the third quarter against a team that barely used two of its starters -- Mike Bibby played 21 minutes, Brad Miller did not play after the first quarter.

Bryant scored 34 points and won the scoring title with ease, averaging 31.6 points to easily out-distance Denver forward Carmelo Anthony (28.9 points). Only two other Lakers have won a scoring title since the team moved from Minneapolis in 1960: Jerry West in 1969-70 (31.2 points per game) and Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-2000 (29.7 ppg).

Kwame Brown was also strong, scoring 17 points on seven-for-eight shooting. Farmar, after a first quarter in which he was outscored by Bibby, 17-2, settled down to finish with six points and three assists.

Golden State crushed Portland, which kept the Lakers in must-win mode if they wanted to nail down the seventh spot.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

NBA PLAYOFFS | FIRST-ROUND MATCHUPS

WESTERN CONFERENCE

1. Dallas (67-15)

8. Golden State (42-40)

Warriors won regular-season series, 3-0

Game 1 at Dallas

Sun., 6:30 p.m.

2. Phoenix (61-21)

7. LAKERS (42-40)

Suns won regular-season series, 3-1