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Big Shaq Attack O'Neal's 40 help Lakers dim undermanned Suns
Posted: Saturday March 25, 2000 09:50 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - "Hack-A-Shaq" doesn't necessarily work as well now as in the past. Shaquille O'Neal seems to be strengthening the only real weak part of his game, at the free-throw line, so intentionally fouling him late in the game can backfire. O'Neal made 10 of 13 from the line, including six of nine in the fourth quarter, as the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Phoenix Suns 109-101 Friday night. "Now that I'm making them, I don't get to the line like I'm supposed to because the league doesn't want me to average 50 [points]. That's all a different story," O'Neal said. "I just say to myself, 'Hit them all and especially hit the ones like you're supposed to in the fourth quarter.'" He settled for 40 points, the fourth time in seven games he's reached that plateau. Even so, the Lakers barely held off the Suns, who were playing their first game since Jason Kidd went out for the season with an ankle injury. The Suns never led and were down 87-75 with 10 minutes remaining, but they closed to 104-101 on Todd Day's 3-pointer with 41 seconds remaining. Then the Lakers' Kobe Bryant made three free throws, and Robert Horry made two more for the final margin. "We want to be a team that executes constantly and flawlessly," said Bryant, who scored 28 points. "We had a lot of gaps and execution problems. We didn't have all of our energy in the shootaround today, and it showed in the game. We were a little lethargic. "But to be able to hold them off all night long makes it a good win for us, in that sense." The win was the fifth straight by the Lakers, a streak they began after having their 19-game victory string ended by Washington. The loss ended the Suns' five-game winning streak. Penny Hardaway led the Suns with 25 points. Cliff Robinson added 22 and Rodney Rogers 16. "It was a great effort," Phoenix coach Scott Skiles said. "I thought we played really hard. Every time we got close, it seemed like something just didn't go our way and we just couldn't get over the hump. "We're a team that has two Olympic players [Kidd and Tom Gugliotta] in our starting lineup and both of them are out, so I thought the guys played very, very well." Kidd had surgery on his left ankle Thursday after injuring it just before halftime the previous night in a 114-93 win over Sacramento. Phoenix lost another key player, Gugliotta, earlier this month to surgery on his left knee. Said Hardaway: "We played the No. 1 team in the league and almost beat them. We not going to give up and we're not going to fall out of the fourth spot [in the Western Conference] either. We're going to stay there and play hard every game." Notes: When the Suns lost Kidd and Gugliotta, they lost a combined 28 points, 15.1 rebounds and 12.4 assists a game. Kidd was averaging 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and an NBA-high 10.1 assists. Gugliotta's numbers were 13.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists. ... Kidd's replacement, Randy Livingston, had eight points, two assists and one rebound in 25 minutes. ... The Lakers have won 12 straight at home and are tied with Indiana for most home victories (31).
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