Steve Nash | featured news

Kobe Bryant had 34 points and 10 rebounds, Steve Nash finished with 12 points and nine assists in his first game in almost two months, and the Los Angeles Lakers rallied from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Golden State Warriors 118-115 in overtime on Saturday night.

Two losses in two games and Steve Nash is hurt. This is not how the Lakers wanted to start the regular season. After Portland overwhelmed the Lakers’ defense in the third quarter to take a 16-point lead, the Trail Blazers kept the Lakers at bay in the final quarter to comfortably secure the win Wednesday night at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore.

Dwight Howard missed a two-handed dunk on his first shot, and the night never got much better for the Los Angeles Lakers. When Howard and Steve Nash took their places alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol under the Hollywood spotlight, the Lakers opened a season of enormous expectations with an equally big dud of a performance. Darren Collison scored 17 points, Brandan Wright added 14, and the Dallas Mavericks spoiled the Lakers debuts of Howard and Steve Nash with a 99-91 victory over Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

We already know that Dwight Howard won’t be ready for the start of his first training camp with the Los Angeles Lakers, his rehabilitation and recovery from spinal surgery shoving back his official start date to the season. And there is no doubt there will be a transition period for the Lakers’ newest acquisitions, namely Howard and two-time MVP Steve Nash, who have to adjust to playing with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.

You don’t have to warn Mike Brown about expectations next season with the Lakers. This is, after all, the guy who lived with the would-be championship burden of LeBron James sitting on his back in Cleveland. Sure, the Lakers have added Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, among others, to their roster this summer. Sure, he can feel those 16 previous championships staring down from the rafters and the record books.

The two-time MVP brings a pass-first mentality to a team in need of leadership at point guard. He's also an above average shooter, making 43% of his three-pointers during his career. The Lakers added a point guard of the future by taking one of the best from the last two decades, plucking Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns for a slew of draft picks.

They had the best seat in the house, Steve Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire did. Cushioned, with a courtside view of one of the most important games in recent Suns history. Ordinarily, Nash and Stoudemire would be on the floor, running and gunning, trying to power Phoenix to a critical victory in the fourth quarter. But on Tuesday night, their place was on the bench, watching. Watching the Suns' second unit manhandle the Lakers starters on the way to a Western Conference finals series-tying 115-106 win.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson thinks the Phoenix Suns' star point guard sometimes plays a bit too much like a running back.

Steve Nash scored 20 points and played with a right eye that was swollen shut as Phoenix swept San Antonio for the first time in five tries.

Jason Richardson scored 27 points and Channing Frye hit a clutch 3-pointer with 41.6 seconds to go Tuesday night and the Phoenix Suns clinched a playoff berth by beating the Chicago Bulls 111-105 for their eighth straight win....