Nash and Co. Haven’t Seen the Last of Staples Zingers

OK, now it’s personal, or at least civic.

The Phoenix Suns are back in Staples Center, their home away from home where their dreams and their nightmares came true ... Steve Nash getting hogtied by Luke Walton and stripped by Smush Parker in Game 4

The Suns then went home to bury their ancient foe in Game 7 in one of the most emotional days in their history.

Unfortunately, they didn’t realize the hated Lakers they vanquished were just ... the local warmup act.

If you missed it, the Lakers aren’t the best team in town these days. Last season they finished three games behind the Clippers. This season they needed a late rally while the Clippers were, uh, working on other things, to get within two.

Not that the town paid a lot of attention, because the Lakers had always been the Lakers and the Clippers had always just been the Clippers.

Nothing is forever, even if it seems that way. Now the local audience is switching over to watch the last local team still playing, as easy as hitting the power button on the remote.

The Clippers’ three first-round games against Denver on TNT averaged a 4.7 rating in the Los Angeles market. Game 1 in Phoenix on TNT jumped to a 7.6 here.

By way of contrast, TNT’s four Laker-Sun games averaged a 7.3 here -- and that included Game 6, the highest-rated first-round game ever on cable.

You’ve heard of “The Day of the Locust”? This is The Day of the Clipper.

The Clippers didn’t get to play the Lakers, but this is still the series they’ve waited for their entire careers. They’re playing and the Lakers are watching on TV, those who haven’t thrown something through their sets.

Of course, had the Clippers been swept, which looked entirely possible after Game 1, it would have taken something away from the moment. That made Game 2, in which they proved they belonged, the biggest in their history.

Tonight could be even bigger as they try to take the lead in a second-round series for the first time in franchise history ... and then come Games 4 and 5!

I know, it’s a new experience for all the new Clipper fans out there, but you’re just going to have to take this a day at a time.

After the Suns’ war with the Lakers -- or as they’re known in Phoenix, the Princes of Darkness -- this series started out as a lovefest among comrades.

Sun Coach Mike D’Antoni had been on Mike Dunleavy’s staff in Portland. Elton Brand and Corey Maggette played for Sun assistant Alvin Gentry when he coached the Clippers. Sam Cassell mentored Steve Nash when they were teammates in Phoenix and Tim Thomas when they were teammates in Milwaukee.

Everyone was glad to see one another, except for ABC, which was all excited about a Laker-Clipper series but released its dates when the Lakers went home. Phoenix ticket brokers, who said Game 7 was an all-timer, saw the bottom fall out of the market.

The Lakers had always inspired fear. The Clippers had always inspired late-night comedy routines. Even the Suns, who lost twice to them this season, kept saying -- as if reminding themselves -- the Clippers were really good.

However, speaking for the majority before Game 2, emcee Cedric Ceballos, the former Laker and boating enthusiast, recalled the Lakers’ Game 2 upset, announcing, “There’s no way possible we’re leaving this building not up 2-0.”

Way.

The Suns are faster and more dynamic, the Clippers bigger and stronger, and whoever makes his advantage work first wins. Neither is good enough to mail it in.

Game 2 seemed to pick up right where Game 1 had left off, with Shawn Marion dunking a lob behind the Clipper defense nine seconds into it.

“We told our guys coming out, ‘Look, they’re running a lob play, OK? We’re not sure which one it is,’ ” said Dunleavy, laughing. “We named about three of them. I forgot to name that one, so OK, you got me. ...

“I just thought it was an everyday occurrence. They got us every single time [in Game 1] so, like, here it comes, let them be happy, let them get the lob out of the way and let’s play.”

Sure enough, that ended the Suns’ highlight reel. They strolled around casually after that while the Clippers, who were not only bigger and stronger but desperate, out-rebounded them, 57-26.

“There was definitely a letdown,” Nash said. “We were elsewhere for most of the game. We didn’t have really a great focus or attitude and we need that. We’re smaller than every team we’re going to play. We need to scrap. We need to be tough. ...

“I think tonight you saw a glimpse of how talented a team they are.”

In the first two games we saw how talented each team is, even if one is new at this. Now to get down to business.