Phoenix Suns Basketball Team

Dial to Pursue Split; Teets to Retire: Despite opposition by a major stockholder, Dial Corp. said it plans to proceed with the previously announced spinoff of its services lines--which include one of the nation's largest airline food operations--into a new company called Viad Corp. Phoenix-based Dial, which will keep its consumer-goods units that include its namesake soap, also said Chairman John W. Teets, 62, plans to retire early next year.

The Lakers continued their redemption tour, putting away the ghosts of Phoenix past before turning toward a more palatable prize -- the Boston Celtics. The Lakers closed out the Suns in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, 111-103, finally able to flick away lingering playoff losses to them in 2006 and 2007. Ron Artest, the team mascot for redemption after his buzzer-beating follow in Game 5, continued to stun the Suns with 25 points Saturday at US Airways Center, helping move the Lakers to within four victories of their 16th NBA championship, a somewhat surprising outcome for a team that looked lost at the end of the regular season.

Steve Nash sat at the podium during his postgame interview, a stony look on his face, a look more of determination than anything else. His Phoenix Suns had just lost, 103-101, to the Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals that was determined by Ron Artest's follow-up of Kobe Bryant's miss as time expired. Nash's team is near elimination, trailing 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, but that didn't stop him from making a bold statement. "We lost and they held home court," Nash said.

Opening a new battlefield against cable companies, regional phone operator US West Communications said Monday that it will take advantage of new technology to offer its Phoenix customers the first digital television and high-speed Internet service over existing phone lines. The company backed up its commitment with another first, signing a 25-year, $300-million agreement with the Phoenix Suns professional basketball team for exclusive television rights starting in 2003.

Reducing their magic number for clinching the Pacific Division to 61, the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night. Any combination of 61 L.A. wins and Phoenix losses will clinch the Lakers' third division title in a row. Even if the Suns don't lose any, the Lakers can still do it by early March, assuming their nine-game winning streak goes the rest of the season. Actually, it's a little early . . . since the Lakers lead the second-place Suns by only two games. On the other hand, the Suns have conceded the race, or at least have no illusions that it is a race, as General Manager Steve Kerr noted before the game.

He was a fourth-round draft choice from Pepperdine University--where he wasn't even a starter in his senior year--when he showed up last fall in the training camp of the Phoenix Suns. Grant Gondrezick figured they didn't even know his name. But it worked out better than he could have imagined.

Shaquille O'Neal, not exactly a disinterested party in either case, set the scene with subtle strokes and a knack for foreshadowing the most scintillating conflict. So, the Lakers open their Western Conference semifinal series against the Phoenix Suns today at Staples Center?

There was no bathroom break. No seventh-period stretch. No winner for 3 hours and 20 minutes. And, at the end, no Chicago Bulls, victims of exhaustion and headstrong visitors. Only the Phoenix Suns were standing when it was over Sunday night, having earned a 129-121 triple-overtime, one-for-the-ages victory to cut their deficit in the NBA finals to 2-1.

Buck Williams did not just strip Tom Chambers of the ball Thursday night. He took away the Phoenix Suns' fading playoff hopes, obliterated the notion of home-court dominance and ended 13 seasons of Portland Trail Blazer frustration since their last trip to the NBA championship series in 1976-77. In one stealthy move, Williams did all that.

Thanks, Big Laker in the Sky. The Lakers didn't win Game 5 Thursday night, they put it in the hands of the gods and let them sort it out. Tantalizing the Suns, the gods let Phoenix come from 18 points down in the last 16 minutes to tie it, getting off three three-pointers on its last possession before Jason Richardson banked the last one in from the top of the circle. Then the gods walked Ron Artest, who had just thrown up one of the dumbest shots in Lakers history, which is saying something, under Kobe Bryant's airball to make the winning shot as time ran out in an improbable — OK, lucky —103-101 victory at Staples Center.

"Nooooooooo!" Nineteen thousand fans shouted in unison as Ron Artest threw up the silliest shot of the season, an unconscionable bomb in the final moments, a boneheaded brick. "Yessssssssss!" Nineteen thousands fans shouted in unison as Ron Artest threw up the biggest shot of the season, an improbable snatch-and-toss of a Kobe Bryant airball at the final buzzer, a brilliant bank. No. Yes. No. Yes. It's taken eight months, but the inevitable has finally happened, Ron Artest has officially driven this city mad, turning us into a confused puddle of splattered emotions, turning us into him. Oh, yeah, he also just pushed the Lakers to within one win of their third consecutive trip to the NBA Finals with a last-second shot Thursday that gave them a 103-101 victory over the Phoenix Suns in a pivotal Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

It was the gimmick heard 'round the NBA, and it turned a potential wipeout into a series. The Lakers had just ripped through the Phoenix Suns again, passing 30 points in a quarter for the sixth time in nine tries, taking a 32-29 lead in Game 3 Sunday of the Western Conference finals. Then the game was changed, as were the Suns' diminishing chances. Phoenix employed a zone defense with its reserves early in the second quarter, holding the Lakers to 15 points in 12 minutes and creating a crawl space of hope for the undersized Suns.

"What do you think?" It was the enigmatic, emphatic question that answered a question. It was Kobe Bryant's response to The Times' Brad Turner last week when Turner wondered whether the Lakers' consecutive postseason horrors against the Phoenix Suns burdened Bryant. "What do you think?" Bryant said, glaring. Well, Monday night, after watching a golden rage pour out of him like pure lava from jagged and smoldering rocks, here's what I think. This is Kobe with a bigger chip on his shoulder than in his knee.

Thanks for coming, Phoenix Suns. Oh, that was just Game 1? In the good news for the Suns, the Western Conference finals are still best-of-seven, so this series didn't end Monday night . . . appearances to the contrary in the Lakers' 128-107 romp. Or is that the bad news for the Suns? As Steve Nash said afterward, "We'll see . . . . "They're a lot bigger than us, and they're probably going to continue to be taller than us as the series goes on." With all their other problems, the Suns ran into a ticked-off Kobe Bryant, upset either because Grant Hill was bumping him around . . . or because the Suns knocked the Lakers out in 2006 and 2007 . . . or seeking vindication for, quote, tanking Game 7 in '06 . . . or, in a safe bet, up to here with being asked about the quote, tanking controversy.

It was a sweep, all right. The Lakers swept this doubter completely off his feet, reduced me to a pillar of salt, knocked me directly into a setting Suns. Before watching the Lakers take the court against the Utah Jazz for the fourth game of a 3-0 playoff series Monday, I figured the ensuing Western Conference finals would be a regular Nash pit. I figured wrong. The Phoenix Suns have no chance. Anybody who watched the Lakers tear apart the NBA's most synchronized team on its most important night at its ear-bending home would agree.

Well, I don't think there's any way Phoenix can blow this series now, is there? Who in his right mind wouldn't side with the Suns after what they did to the Lakers here Saturday? I think these guys are a lock to win the NBA championship, and probably many more to come.

Forward Tom Chambers of the Phoenix Suns suffered a slight fracture of his left cheekbone along with a 14-stitch cut in Tuesday night's game against Portland in Phoenix.

Reducing their magic number for clinching the Pacific Division to 61, the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night. Any combination of 61 L.A. wins and Phoenix losses will clinch the Lakers' third division title in a row. Even if the Suns don't lose any, the Lakers can still do it by early March, assuming their nine-game winning streak goes the rest of the season. Actually, it's a little early . . . since the Lakers lead the second-place Suns by only two games. On the other hand, the Suns have conceded the race, or at least have no illusions that it is a race, as General Manager Steve Kerr noted before the game.

The NBA's traveling carnival came to town Thursday, tilt-a-whirl breaks and cotton candy shots everywhere. It rolled in here after owning Boston, owning Miami, owning Philadelphia, turning the early season into its own Disneyland. "This is a fun team," chortled the Phoenix Suns Leandro Barbosa early Thursday evening at Staples Center. "We play fun basketball." Then the diamond-studded locals wandered in, wise to the midway and wary of the rides and unimpressed with the barking.