updated 8:21 p.m. ET May 7, 2006

LOS ANGELES - The joy and anticipation stoked by the possibility of an unprecedented Battle of L.A. disappeared with the greatest playoff collapse in Lakers history.

To make matters even worse, it was capped by an embarrassing flop in Game 7.

So now, with the Clippers about to play Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals, the Lakers head home for the summer to ponder what went so completely wrong against the Suns.

The Lakers were just a rebound and six seconds away from advancing to the second round of the playoffs in Game 6.

How in the world could they have been so horrific in Game 7?

“I don’t know what to say,” coach Phil Jackson said after his team was routed 121-90 on Saturday night.

“To be honest, I think some of us came out a little overwhelmed,” Luke Walton said. “We’re a better team than we showed and should have moved on.”

But the Lakers didn’t. Instead, they lost a playoff series after holding a 3-1 lead for the first time, and the Suns became just the eighth NBA team to rally from such a deficit.

Jackson, the $10 million coach brought back this season to try and restore the Lakers to their previous greatness, made strides with a young team.

The Lakers went 34-48 and missed the playoffs during the year he was gone, but improved by 11 games this season and returned to the postseason.

“We wanted to see growth out of a young basketball club, and we saw that at the end of the season,” said Jackson, whose team went 11-3 to finish the year, turning a 34-34 record into a 45-37 mark.

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“We had some momentum coming into the playoffs, and we played a good series against the Phoenix Suns, discounting this last, final game,” Jackson said. “We have to make some large decisions about this team — about who stays and what we build our team around.

“But we feel comfortable we have a nucleus and we can go from there. And hopefully, we can find some pieces that will make us a little bit better next year.”

The Lakers played their best ball of the season in the first four games against the Suns, giving superstar Kobe Bryant more help than he could have expected in taking a 3-1 lead.

Game 5 in Phoenix was a wipeout. Then, playing at home, the Lakers had a great shot to win Game 6. But Shawn Marion rebounded a missed shot by teammate Steve Nash and got the ball to Tim Thomas for a game-tying 3-pointer, forcing overtime. The Suns went on to win 126-118.

Then came the disastrous Game 7 in Phoenix.

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“It’s all growth for us, it’s all evolution,” said Bryant, who scored 23 points in the first half of Game 7 but just one after that. “I think at the start of the season, nobody expected us to be here. I think the growth that we have, the talent that we have, the upside, is good.

“Kwame Brown obviously has a lot of talent and a lot of potential. He’s going to work hard this summer; he’ll be better next year. Lamar Odom has stepped up and really turned himself into being one of the best players in this game. We have some good pieces in there.”

Brown and Odom made great strides in the last two months, but both looked out of it in the last game, combining to shoot 7-of-24.

Odom said he planned to “watch this game over and over this summer.”

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