Lakers eliminate Suns to advance to NBA Finals against Celtics

One old nemesis was summarily dismissed by the Lakers, the sight of the vanquished Suns looking spectacular in the rear-view mirror in the aftermath of the Western Conference finals.

Redemption accomplished?

Not quite.

Next up: The biggest, baddest Lakers nemesis of all: the Celtics.

They may have shelved memories of twin past playoff losses to the Suns, with a 111-103 victory over Phoenix in Game 6 at US Airways Center, winning the best-of-seven series, four games to two.

It was anything but straightforward because of a thrown elbow by the Lakers’ Sasha Vujacic early in the fourth quarter, which almost single-handedly revived the Suns.

For the Lakers, forward Ron Artest, the last-gasp hero of Game 5, paved the way with a strong first half and finished with 25 points, and Kobe Bryant had a game-high 37 points, and 11 of those came in the fourth quarter.

Steve Nash, who had provided assurances that the series would go back to Los Angeles for Game 7, had 21 points for the Suns, who were led by Amare Stoudemire’s 27 points.

It was the Suns’ first loss in seven home playoff games, and the Lakers earned their third straight trip to the NBA Finals.

Which brings this all back to Boston. Afterward, the image of the Lakers’ loss to the Celtics in the 2008 Finals almost immediately surfaced. Not that it is ever far from the thoughts and minds of Lakers players and fans.

This is why Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who didn’t know better, started talking about playing the Celtics.

Last week.

This is why the spectators were chanting, “We Want Boston! We Want Boston!� at Staples Center during Game 2, back before the Suns turned this into a compelling series with wins in Games 3 and 4 in Phoenix, confounding the Lakers with their zone defense.

The Lakers started to figure it out, started to find the seams and the holes in the defense, and were fueled by an uncommonly strong offensive showing by Artest, who hit three three-pointers in the first half and added one more in the third quarter.

Los Angeles led, 65-53, at the half, and built a 17-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Then came the elbow.

The Lakers’ comfort zone became hugely unsettled when Vujacic raised him arms in front of Suns reserve point guard Goran Dragic, which managed to jar the Suns out of their malaise early in the fourth quarter.

That old Slovenian rivalry -- who knew? -- between the Dragic and Vujacic flared after Dragic hit a jumper to cut the lead to 15 points in the first minute of the final quarter.

Vujacic’s left elbow struck Dragic after his jumper and down went Dragic, which earned Vujacic a flagrant foul-1.

Worse yet, for the Lakers, that immediately ignited the Suns, their crowd and Dragic, in no particular order. Dragic poured in eight points in less than a minute and the Suns’ bench started looking like a carbon copy of Game 4.

The Suns went on runs of 12-2 and 16-4 to slice away at the Lakers’ huge lead and pull within five, points, 95-90, with 5:35 remaining.

That left it to Bryant to salvage matters -- again.

He had hit an improbable 28-footer to close out the first half and Suns Coach Alvin Gentry said to his team at halftime, in a clip shown on TV: “There’s not anybody in America that could do a thing about it.�

He could have been talking about Bryant in the fourth quarter as well.