Defensive debacle

PHOENIX -- The Lakers didn't play the right kind of defense tonight against the Phoenix Suns. In fact, they didn't play any kind of defense at all while giving up a season-high 118 points. Their previous high was 110 in a Nov. 1 win over the Atlanta Hawks. They knew what they did wrong, but they were helpless when it came to helping themselves.

Andrew Bynum put it best when he said, ""It's all our fault. Defensively, everybody was doing something different. We weren't connected. ... It was just terrible. ... We went over what we were supposed to do in shootaround. It just didn't work."

Said Lakers coach Phil Jackson: "They got all the things they do, the way they wanted to get it done with (Steve) Nash and (Amare) Stoudemire. ... We got confused out there. ... Very irritating, very irritating."

Said Kobe Bryant: "It was just execution. We just beat the (mess) out of them the first two times (earlier this season), and they returned the favor. It's about execution and they executed extremely well and we didn't defensively, and that was the difference."