The Los Angeles Lakers coach offered all of that Wednesday night before Game 2 of his team's Western Conference semifinal series against Phoenix.

Then the Suns helped to prove Jackson's points.

Phoenix stayed on the Lakers all night, refusing to dip quietly in the West, and held a one-point lead in the final 10 seconds ... until Kobe Bryant put them away with a game-winning, Jordanesque, 15-foot jumper with 2.6 seconds on the clock.

It wound up as a 97-96 Lakers' victory that went just about the way Jackson had suggested it would.

Four hours before the dramatic ending, Jackson spoke as if he already had reviewed a tape of how it would unfold.

"You can get distracted real quickly in games like this, against a team that you've won five consecutive games against," Jackson said. "You start to take them for granted."

Maybe Shaquille O'Neal, playing his first game since winning the league MVP award, felt those bad vibes, too. By his account, he got very little sleep Tuesday night. So he stayed up and ate cereal.

"Frosted Flakes," O'Neal said, "and I watched a lot of TV."

Shaq ate up the Suns for 38 points and 20 rebounds. However, his errant free-throw shooting (heard that one before?), Bryant's foul trouble, and poor marksmanship by designated assassin Glen Rice kept Phoenix in it until the very end.

The Suns have their own problems, so they don't want to hear the Lakers whine. Surgeries have sidelined Tom Gugliotta and Rex Chapman for the playoffs ... and Jason Kidd was having considerable discomfort with the left ankle that he'd broken ankle six weeks ago and was questionable right up until tip-off Wednesday.

Phoenix indeed had lost all five of its games against L.A. this season, and the game was played in a $400-million arena that has become the coziest of confines for the Lakers.

Perhaps too cozy, because the home team seemed content to coast home after Robert Horry sank a pair of free throws with four minutes remaining to give the Lakers a 93-88 lead.

But the Suns didn't sink.

Rodney Rogers hit two free throws for Phoenix. Rice missed badly on a jumper, and at the other end, Bryant hacked Penny Hardaway, who hit two more free throws, and the Suns were within 93-92.

The crowd of 18,997, which has become accustomed to supplying the Lakers with adrenaline surges, was dumbfounded.

Then Hack-a-Shaq worked: Luc Longley intentionally fouled O'Neal, who accommodated the Suns by missing both free throws, and shortly thereafter, Ron Harper sank only one of his two freebies, giving the Lakers a 94-92 edge.

It got even worse for the homers in the purple seats when Rice was stripped of the ball 35 feet from the basket by Cliff Robinson, who was quickly fouled by Rice and then plopped in two ensuing free throws to tie it 94-94.

Could it get worse for the Hollywood set? Absolutely, as Bryant lost his handle on the ball through the right lane, and upon saving it from bounding to the Laker Girls beyond the baseline, tossed it right to Kidd.

Kidd zipped it up the floor, and Hardaway's follow shot on the fastbreak gave Phoenix a 96-94 lead with 46.8 seconds left.

When Bryant was fouled on a jumper, he could have tied the score by making both free throws, but made only one ... but then, he knows his crowd adores dramatic endings.

The ending got especially dramatic when Hardaway drove across the lane and collided with O'Neal ... the shot was off ... the whistle was swallowed ... and Bryant got his stage for the dramatic ending.

Bryant added to his growing legend by drilling a 15-foot jumper -- with Kidd smack in his face -- for the game-winner.

No matter that he'd run the clock down to 3 seconds before taking the shot. Had he missed, the Lakers probably would not have gotten the chance to get the ball back even by fouling the Suns.

Clearly, it was a mistake waiting so long with a one-point deficit ... but he hit the shot, and was ecstatic that he made amends for missing that free throw, appropriately put both hands to his ears to soak up the sounds of boisterous Staples Center crowd.

Lakers forward Glen Rice loses the ball as he barrels over Rodney Rogers.(AP)

When the Suns had the Lakers on the ropes, they simply failed to throw a haymaker, much less a jab.

On the three possessions before Robinson tied it 94-94, Phoenix failed to get a high-percentage shot, each time allowing the shot clock to run down too close to the end before taking a rushed shot (two by Robinson, one a 3-point bomb by Rogers).

That was the stretch in which the Suns blew a chance to steal one in a building that has been very stingy on opponents this season. They can probably start to think about their vacation plans in the next week or 10 days.

Rogers, winner of the NBA's Sixth Man Award, isn't very jolly after he plays the Lakers. He went 3-for-11 from the floor, for eight points, on Wednesday. He's hit only 23 of 74 attempts against L.A. this season, averaging less than 10 points in the six games.

Jackson said it best.

"This is what the series is all about," he said. "You have to stay focused, game to game, and not worry about anything else going on in the league. You can't worry about Shaq's MVP (award), you just concentrate on what's really important -- today, now and the next play."

For the eighth time since they moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis in 1960, the Lakers lost only five or fewer regular-season games at home in 1999-2000. Wednesday, they bumped their postseason Staples mark to 5-0.

If the Lakers continue that trend they'll join elite company while adding another Larry O'Brien Trophy to the franchise's coffers.

Only one other Los Angeles Lakers title team has zipped through a postseason without losing a game at home, which the 1986-87 version did by going 10-0 at the Forum. Rabid Laker locals rejoiced that they clinched the title by beating hated Boston at home.

The Lakers now enjoy a 2-0 advantage, thanks in large part to Bryant's late-game heroics.

"I had a flashback to when I was a kid. I think that I had a hand up, so I had to pull the shot back a little bit. And thank God it fell," Bryant said. "I just felt like I was in the backyard."

In the backyard at home, which, at times, might be too much of a comfort zone for the Lakers. Wednesday night, they awoke just in time to take the trash out. They hope there won't be a next time.