Five months after last meeting, the West finalists met again, this time with some new faces. Gone is big man Amare Stoudemire for Phoenix and the Champs strengthened their bench with 2 key additions, and are still missing their starting big man. The Lakers won or tied every quarter and almost ran away with it before the Suns made one last run. The Suns back court shot poorly all game and even though their new big man, Robin Lopez chipped in nicely 18 pts, 14 rebs, the Lakers best post player, Pau Gasol, pretty much did whatever he wanted on the block. The Suns bench still won the scoring battle, but the Lakers starters all go to double figures, and even though they only won the rebound battle by 3, at times the Lakers length made it look to easy.
Player of the Game: Pau Gasol, near triple double, 21 pts, 8 rbs, 9 asts, dictated from the post.
X-Factor: Lamar Odom, continues his stellar play following the World Championships, his final tally was 18 pts, 17 rbs, 5 assts.
Should Have Been Benched: New face vet Theo Ratliff was the only low point for the Lakers, 8 minutes 0 pts, 0 rbs.
Laker Hater: Robin Lopez had more pts, rebs in this game, than the first two combined.
Overtime: Phil Jackson became the fastest to reach 1,100 wins as a head coach, accomplishing it 1,560 games. Only 4 other coaches have reached that milestone, former Lakers Coach & current Miami mastermind, Pat Riley, the great Jerry Sloan, Don Nelson, and Lenny Wilkens.
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