AS L.A. FALLS, PHOENIX RISES LAKERS GET OFF TO FAST START, THEN COLLAPSE LATE.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND 

Staff Writer

PHOENIX -- The only thing more shocking than the collapse was what preceded it.

After a season of strife, sixmonths of bickering and limping, poor defending and losing, the Lakers put it all together in the first half Sunday afternoon and put themselves within reach of a stunning victory.

But then the Phoenix Suns -- at least the version of them that is widely recognized -- took the court.

Suddenly, instead of a sputtering half-court offense, the Suns ran the floor with confidence, just when Kobe Bryant ran out of gas. The Lakers, expected to be a footnote to the Suns' championship run, put up a fight but faded in a 95-87 loss in Game 1 of the first-round series in front of 18,422 at US Airways Center.

"Nothing slipped away when you lose a game like that," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "They played a 48-minute game and we played a 36-minute game."

Bryant scored 28 of his game-high 39 points in the first half, but missed nine of 10 shots in the fourth quarter. The Lakers scored only 10 points in the final period and shot 19 percent from the field.

The Suns, emboldened by a third-quarter offensive turnaround, came into the final period trailing by three but then dominated all facets of the game. The Suns scored only 21points in the fourth quarter but got the job done by harassing Bryant on every possession and getting back to their run-and-gun offensive roots.

"Tempo, tempo, tempo," Lakers forward Lamar Odom said. "We can't play at their tempo. We won't get any good looks offensively and we had the ball shoved down our throats. It was like a football game where you see a team run it and run it and run it until they score, and that's what they did."

Leandro Barbosa, who scored 26 points off the bench to lead the Suns, scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to give Phoenix a 79-77 lead, the Suns' first lead since midway through the first period.

The Suns wouldn't trail again. The Lakers missed 13 of their first 15 shots in the fourth quarter and had their fate sealed when Bryant missed a 3-pointer with the Lakers trailing 93-87 in the final minute.

Kwame Brown, expected to be a big factor in the series, didn't fare well. Brown had fourpoints and seven rebounds in 27 minutes while Suns center Amare Stoudemire had 23points and 12 rebounds.

Odom totaled 17 points and 16 rebounds, but no other Laker had more points than Luke Walton's 10.

"We were a lot more determined and focused, I think, in the first half," Walton said. "I don't know what it was (in the second half) but we just kept letting them run the ball out and offensively, our missed shots gave them a chance to run. We're confident that we can play with these guys and get wins, but if we play like we did in the second half, it's not going to happen."

As poorly as the second half went for the Lakers, the first two quarters couldn't have been better. The Lakers kept the Suns' offense in control and led 23-18 after one quarter.

Bryant scored the Lakers' final 15 points of the first half and did all the damage in an 11-2 run that gave the Lakers a 48-39 lead at the break.

Then the third quarter began. The Lakers kept the lead -- and built it to 12 points on Brown's layup three minutes into the period -- but the comeback seeds had already been planted by the Suns, who got the Lakers to play the type of up-tempo style that carried the Suns to 61 regular-season victories.

Barbosa scored 10 of his team-high 26 points in the third quarter, including a 31-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to pull the Suns within three points heading into the final period. The Suns, who totaled just 39 points in the first half, outscored the Lakers 35-29 in the third quarter.

Gone were the stagnant Suns, the ones who never found a rhythm in the first half. Also gone by the fourth quarter, at least figuratively, was Bryant, who disputed Jackson's assertion that he ran out of gas.

"I was fine," Bryant said. "We didn't execute like we did in that first half. 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."

They also got away from their plan of making Steve Nash score, rather than set up teammates. It worked well in the first quarter as Nash had only one assist, but Nash finished with 20points and 10 assists.

"I don't know what you can attribute the offensive struggles to," Nash said, "but that's something I don't think will be a factor very long. ... We need to give (the Lakers) credit, because they played with a lot of energy, but it was good the way we were mentally, hung in there and relied on our defense."

The Lakers have now lost four consecutive playoff games, all to the Suns.

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) DESERT FREEZE

Lakers go cold in fourth, drop Game 1 in Phoenix

Matt york/Associated Press

(2) Phoenix's Leandro Barbosa scores two of his 26 points as Lakers forward Luke Walton looks on Sunday.

(3) The Lakers' Kobe Bryant, left, and head coach Phil Jackson goin different directions after a timeout during L.A.'s loss.

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Box:

WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST-ROUND SERIES PHOENIX LEADS 1-0