WEARY FROM A winless road trip that dropped the Los Angeles Lakers from second to fifth in the Western Conference standings, the team's homecoming reward was a Sunday matinee tipoff against the Phoenix Suns.
L.A.'s four-game skid -- with three of those losses coming without LeBron James after the 40-year-old was sidelined by a left groin strain -- could hardly match the Suns on the hardship scale. Heading into the game, Phoenix had gone 6-14 since Feb. 1, compared to the Lakers' 13-6 mark in that span.
Phoenix still presented a challenge.