The Phoenix Suns got home at 4 A.M., then sleepwalked through their home opener. The result was a 119-98 rout at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Vladimir Radmanovic made all four of his 3-pointers and scored 19 points, while Bryant added 16 points and 11 rebounds Friday night in a game that was not nearly as close as the final 21-point margin.
The only interesting moment down the stretch came when Suns' coach Mike D'Antoni became livid when Lakers' coach Phil Jackson called a timeout, right after the Suns called one, with 4:55 to play and Phoenix trailing 111-78.
"Yeah, I was pretty upset," D'Antoni said. "I thought he disrespected our players. But he likes to play the mind games, and that's fine. He might want to try to do it in playoff time when we bust them every year."
Jackson said he was just getting a mandatory timeout out of the way.
"He wasn't thinking straight. That's all," Jackson said of D'Antoni. "He'd understand that if he thought about it for a second. I think he thought I was trying to showboat or grandstand. But when you have a mandatory timeout coming in a minute and a half or something like that, just get it out of the way."






