The Phoenix Suns, which are currently placed in the 9th position of the Western Conference, beat in great way the LA Lakers 118-111 this past Sunday. Even with a 49-point performance from the superstar Kobe Bryant, the Lakers couldn’t pull it true to get the win over the Suns. Shaquille O’Neal had also a great performance adding 33 points for the Suns and unlike the Lakers, the Suns played as a team having the contribution of several players such as Matt Barnes, Grant Hill and Leandro Barbosa, which ended with double figures. For the Lakers, only Paul Gasol supported Kobe Bryant with 30 points.
This was the fourth game of the season between these two franchises; the Lakers had won the first three confrontations.
During the first quarter, the Suns was on control of the actions, having the lead the whole period and later ending the quarter winning by eight points 34-26. For the second quarter, things didn’t change as the Suns kept the lead by playing consistently and even extending the advantage to 14 points with only 2:13 left in the quarter. Moreover, during the third quarter, Kobe and the Lakers tried to come back in the score by Kobe scoring 17 points in less than 4 minutes in the early second half. However, that wasn’t enough as the Suns kept the lead and ended the third quarter with an advantage of 10 points. In the last quarter, the Lakers had a run of 11-2 in the first 3:30 minutes, diminishing the lead to just two points. Nevertheless, after that the Suns reacted with a run of 13-0 that concluded with the victory.
At his almost 37 years-old, Shaquille O’Neil has been having a great performance this season. After the game, when Kobe Bryant was asked about if Shaq’s performance reminded him of the Shaq of old days, he expressed: "No, not quite," Kobe stated. "But he's playing extremely well, obviously. The thing is they're looking for him; they're going inside to him. Tonight, I mean, Pau is giving up 250 pounds (a bit of an exaggeration). There's really not much he can do in that situation and Shaq took advantage of it."
The best scorers for the Lakers were Kobe Bryant with 49 points and 11 rebounds, Paul Gasol with 30 points and 7 rebounds and Trevor Ariza from the bench with 9 points, 4 assists and 5 rebounds. For the Phoenix Suns the best scorers were, Shaquille O’Neal with 33 points and 7 rebounds, Matt Barnes with 26 points, 7 assists and 10 rebounds, Leandro Barbosa with 22 points and 7 assists and finally Grant Hill with 17 points and 6 rebounds.
With this victory, the Suns are placing themselves closer to a spot in the playoffs but not quite yet. For the Lakers, this was the second consecutive loss and the third in the last ten games. However, the Lakers expect to perform better and work harder in the next games, while the Suns expect to have Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire back in the court soon and keep their winning streak to secure a spot in the playoffs.
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