Lakers Less Than Thrilled With Christmas Victory
Ho ho ho hum.
The Phoenix Suns threw their considerable bench at the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday afternoon - “A couple of times, I had Robert Horry on me,” Shaquille O’Neal said, “I don’t know what that was about” - and still couldn’t make more than a dent, just like before.
Not bad, considering the visitors didn’t much want to be here.
This time, the Lakers’ victory was 108-87 before 19,023 at America West Arena and a national-television audience, witnesses to O’Neal getting 26 points and 16 rebounds, Elden Campbell 13 points and 12 rebounds and Eddie Jones 24 points and five steals.
The three meetings this season have resulted in the Lakers winning by a combined 49 points. The Christmas matinee-for-TV was also their sixth in a row over the Suns since the last-minute comeback victory by Phoenix exactly 13 months earlier.
The latest encounter was supposed to be the first real challenge of the three games this season because the Suns were finally injury-free. That theory lasted into the fourth quarter, then was replaced by a fact: Put Horry on O’Neal and you’re asking for trouble.
Phoenix, having sent Hot Rod Williams, Joe Kleine and Mark Bryant at him earlier, tried the 220-pound forward and found similar results. O’Neal did not dominate, finishing a tame 11 of 24 from the field, but he scored six points, some of which came on Horry’s watch, during the 12-0 run that turned an 87-79 lead with 6:30 remaining into a 99-79 runaway with 3:24 left.
During the same stretch, three Suns possessions ended in a pair of defensive rebounds by Campbell and then a blocked shot on a 3-point attempt by Horry.
“We really dominated the rebounding today, and that was a key,” Lakers coach Del Harris said.
Added Campbell: “With an advantage like that (size), we have to just go to it.”
Several Laker players took less than kindly to having to play on Christmas, and out of town at that, especially since they had Thanksgiving dinner in a Boston hotel around noon before flying to Detroit.