SUNS HAVEN'T SET YET PHOENIX FORCES GAME 7 WITH OVERTIME WIN PHOENIX 126, LAKERS 118.

Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer

They had a three-point lead with less than 30 seconds left in regulation, playing on their home court with a chance to close out their Western Conference first-round playoff series against a team playing without its suspended guard.

The opportunity lost for the Lakers in Game 6 on Thursday night was staggering to comprehend but it started there and ended with the Phoenix Suns heading home with a 126-118 overtime victory and the chance to save their season.

Tim Thomas connected on a 3-pointer off a wild play to tie the game 105-105 with 6.3 seconds left in regulation and the Suns went into overtime and more than avenged those two last-second shots Kobe Bryant hit at the end of Game 4.

Phoenix was playing without the suspended Raja Bell and dealt the Lakers a collective clothesline takedown with the victory. The odds will not be with the Lakers for Game 7 on Saturday night at US Airways Center.

Just consider that road teams are 17-75 all time in Game 7s. The last time the Lakers played Game 7 on the road, though, they left Arco Arena with a victory over Sacramento in the 2002 Western Conference finals.

``At night, when you go to the bathroom, you don't stand there and look at what you just dropped in there,'' Bryant said. ``At some point, you've got to flush it.''

Only seven teams ever have come back from 3-1 down in a series in NBA history, but Phoenix will have the chance to be the eighth. Meanwhile, the Clippers wait and wonder about a Hallway Series that looks less likely by the day.

Steve Nash skipped into the Suns locker room afterward and jokingly said that with a four games-to-two lead, they still had a game left to play.

``There is a lot at stake,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``For them, it would be a terrific comeback. For us, it would be a monumental upset.''

It looked like the game would belong to Bryant, who scored 50 points on 20-of-35 shooting, including 36 points in the second half and overtime. Late in the fourth quarter, he connected on a 3-pointer with the shot clock expiring and Shawn Marion giving chase.

Bryant squeezed off the shot from the left corner with 1:46 remaining and put the Lakers in front 103-102. He had missed five of six shots in the quarter but found just enough space on the move to hit the jumper.

Bryant made another sensational play, driving on Marion and banking in a shot to make it 105-102 with 29.3 seconds left. But Phoenix found a way to tie the game at the other end, on a possession that started with Nash nearly traveling and then missing a 3-pointer.

Marion rebounded the Nash miss and passed back out to Thomas, who drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the floor. Thomas had missed two shots down the stretch but delivered when it counted most.

Jackson was upset afterward that the Lakers didn't foul Marion after he rebounded the ball.

``That's the only beef I had,'' Jackson said. ``When you have a scramble play like that and players get offensive rebounds, it's really hard to cover. That's a pretty natural thing that might happen, especially with a team that has 3-point shooters.

``You just can't let that offensive rebound happen. If it happens, you've got to foul. We knew that we had a foul to use and didn't.''

Bryant missed a 17-footer over Marion at the buzzer for the Lakers and the game went into overtime.

Bryant started overtime by hitting another seemingly unbelievable shot, double-clutching against Marion, then spinning and draining a fadeaway 17-footer to put the Lakers in front 107-105.

But Boris Diaw answered at the other end for Phoenix and Luke Walton had a shot in the lane rim out. Nash and Marion hooked up on an alley-oop and Kwame Brown fumbled a pass to give the ball back to Phoenix.

Diaw scored to put the Suns up 113-109 with 2:33 remaining and the Lakers called timeout. Bryant missed in traffic out of the timeout and Thomas connected on a 3-pointer from the corner to make it a seven-point game.

Nash finished with 32 points and 13 assists, Thomas had 21 points off the bench and Leandro Barbosa -- starting in place of the suspended Bell -- had 22 points. The Suns shot 16 free throws in the second quarter, 29 for the game.

Lamar Odom totaled 22 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for the Lakers. But Smush Parker missed all five shots he took and finished with two points in 41 minutes. Parker is now 3 for 24 the last three games.

The Suns kept finding the mismatch for Nash, using their screen and roll plays to force Brown to defend their MVP point guard. Nash sank two jumpers as Phoenix took a 98-95 lead into the final five minutes.

``They're getting me in screen-roll every play hoping for the switch,'' Brown said. ``Steve Nash hit a couple shots and then they started going into the post. We have to do something different.

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

4 photos, 7 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Lakers' Kobe Bryant shows his dejection at the end of the first half of Thursday's game at Staples Center. Bryant scored 50 points, but it wasn't enough to keep Los Angeles from a loss in Game 6 of the first-round series.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer

(2) Kobe Bryant recovers the ball in front of Phoenix's Shawn Marion during Game 6 on Thursday.

(3 -- color) no caption (Suns player)

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(4) no caption (Steve Nash and Smush Parker)

Box:

(1) STORY LINES

(2) HERO

(3) GOAT

(4) THEY SAID IT

(5) KEY STAT

(6) QUARTER BY QUARTER

(7) WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND, BEST-OF-7 SERIES TIED 3-3