So much was made about Kobe Bryant and how he would approach Game 2 of Suns/Lakers (”Is he gonna share or go solo?”) that everyone kinda forgot one thing: the Suns are really really good, and the Lakers are somewhere between “aiight” and “awful” when Kobe’s not bustin’ everyone’s ass. Last night Mamba only scored 15 points (5-for-13 FGs) and his team got thoroughly pieced, 126-98 … Phoenix was just destroying L.A. with the pick-and-roll. Over and over again, many times focusing on Smush Parker to put him in the middle of it. A lot of easy buckets, either wide-open jumpers or layups. And when they weren’t running the pick-and-roll, the Suns let Leandro Barbosa (presented with the Sixth Man trophy before tip-off) butcher Smush off the dribble … Barbosa put up 26 points, Steve “Big Poppa Pump” Nash (you see him kiss the bicep?) had 16 and 14 dimes, Shawn Marion had 18 and 10 boards, and Amare Stoudemire had 20 points, 9 boards and 4 blocks … One Laker who did show a pulse was Andrew Bynum. This high-speed Suns series isn’t really his forte — in other words, Avery Johnson would be benching him right now if he were the coach — but the kid still had 12 boards and 9 points in only 17 minutes … Before the game, Suns color guy Dan Majerle hit an underhand shot from halfcourt, then banked in a deep three over-the-shoulder without looking. Barkley and crew said he does that before every game. At the end of the Majerle clip, they showed Jalen Rose hit a three while standing on some stairs at the Suns’ practice court. “That’s the only time he’ll play today,” Barkley said. Wrong, Chuck: Jalen played a whole 8 minutes … Our man Dee Brown (the ex-Celtic dunk champ, not the current Jazz PG) said on TV that the Heat aren’t in trouble. We have to disagree. After getting popped in Chicago to fall behind 0-2 in their series, the defending champs are definitely in trouble. It’s not just that they’ve lost two games — it’s that they simply look inferior to Chicago and they have nothing for Luol Deng. Deng dropped 26 points and took over in the fourth quarter last night after torching Miami for 33 in Game 1 … Foul trouble wasn’t an issue for Shaq (17 pts) and D-Wade (21 pts) this time around, but hanging onto the ball was. Both guys committed seven turnovers apiece … The Nets were looking good to go in the first half against Toronto. Bostjan Nachbar was buckets-buckets-bong-bong early on, and finished the half cramming on two Raptors. But Toronto fought back, lighting Jersey outside with Anthony Parker (26 pts) and inside with Chris Bosh (25 pts, 13 rebs) and getting a home split in a must-win … Yo, Richard Jefferson: we know CB4 looks skinny and that he’s a nice guy, but you can’t come into his lane all soft like that. Now that you got put on your butt once, we expect better next time … After Kenny Smith called Anthony Parker “Candace’s brother,” Barkley cut in: “No, she’s his brother.” He said it one more time before Kenny corrected him. “She’s his sister.” Chuck: “You know what I mean.” … It looks like Sebastian Telfair’s Celtics “career” will go down as one of the worst one-year experiments in recent sports memory, as the team will reportedly cut Telfair after his recent arrest for gun possession. Crazy how this kid can go from starting point guard in the NBA at the beginning of the year, to hardly playing at all at the end, to very likely being out of the NBA altogether next season. Will anyone give Bassy another chance? His best bet is probably if Isiah — who supposedly loved Bassy’s game when he was coming out of high school — throws him a bone in New York, but there are a few other teams who could use a backup PG … Sam Mitchell won NBA Coach of the Year yesterday. Mitchell’s season was basically the complete opposite of Telfair’s: at first he looked like he was on the hottest seat in the League, and now he’s a genius. Mitchell beat out Jerry Sloan, Avery Johnson and Jeff Van Gundy for the award. Others getting votes were Mike D’Antoni, Don Nelson, Scott Skiles, Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, George Karl, Flip Saunders and Isiah Thomas … Meanwhile, the Sonics fired coach Bob Hill and dumped GM Rick Sund. You saw this coming back when the names of potential replacements for Hill were being thrown out there during the season. Reportedly, team owner Clay Bennett and vice chairman Lenny Wilkens are going to lead the search for replacements. How much you wanna bet Lenny ends up with one of those two jobs? … Right after we learned Manu Ginobili won’t play in this summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament for Argentina, it turns out national teammate Walter Herrmann won’t play, either. Both guys don’t want to risk injury … VMI junior forward Reggie Williams, who led the country in scoring last year at 28.1 ppg, is entering the draft. Williams had four games where he dropped 40-plus points last year and pulled down eight boards a night. Texas A&M junior forward Joseph Jones (6-foot-9, 13.4 ppg, 6.8 rpg) is also entering the draft, along with Clemson junior big James Mays (6-foot-9, 12.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.9 spg) … We’re out like playing H-O-R-S-E with Thunder Dan …

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