• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Barbosa, Suns face Lakers in Game Two

Apr 24, 2007 - 1:25 PM LA Lakers at Phoenix 10:30 pm EDT Western Conference first round Game Two

PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Leandro Barbosa sparked the Phoenix Suns to a playoff series-opening victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. That's a bad sign for the Lakers, who made defending Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire their priority.

Barbosa scored 26 points to lead the Suns to a 95-87 win over the Lakers in the opener of their Western Conference series.

The teams will meet again here in Game Two on Tuesday.

Barbosa will receive his NBA Sixth Man of the Year award before the game. The Brazilian guard was announced as the winner of the award on Monday.

"He's a one-man fast break sometimes," Nash said.

"We couldn't keep him (Barbosa) in front of us," Lakers superstar guard Kobe Bryant said. "Whether it was screen-and-rolls or transition, we did a terrible job keeping him in front and he really energized them."

Last April, the Suns rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Lakers in the first round, withstanding a 50-point eruption by Bryant to win Game Six in overtime. Bryant was criticized for deferring to his teammates in the second half of a Game Seven loss at Phoenix.

Bryant scored 28 points in the first half of this series opener, but was limited to 11 in the second half and received little help from his teammates.

"We didn't execute like we did in that first half," said Bryant, who missed 11 of his last 12 shots. "So as a consequence, my touches became a lot harder. When they were doubling and tripling me in the first half, we did a good job of picking off the ball and I was able to catch it and operate. In the second half, we got away from that."

The series will shift to Los Angeles for Game Three on Thursday.