FINAL SCORE: Suns 114, Kings 93

SUNS WIN GAME, BUT: Suns guard Jason Kidd broke a bone in his left ankle with .2 seconds left in the first half and will undergo surgery Thursday. A team spokesperson said he will be lost for the remainder of the regular season and is "questionable" for the playoffs.

The injury occurred when Kidd put a spin move on Kings guard Jason Williams right in front of the Suns' bench. He pulled up in obvious pain and had to be helped to the locker room. Preliminary indications were he suffered an injury to his left ankle.

The Suns rallied after Jason Kidd injured his ankle on this play. (AP Photo)

Ironically, with Kidd out, the Suns exploded for their biggest period of the season, burying the Kings under a 38-point blitz in the third quarter. As often happens in the short term when a team loses its key player, a lot of other people stepped up in a big way, playing with much more defensive intensity and offensive concentration than they had in a sloppy first half in which they turned the ball over 18 times and were fortunate to go into intermission only down two points.

The reason they were only down two points was that they hit 70 percent from the field and scored 34 points in the first quarter. But while they didn't miss Kidd against the defensively disadvantaged Kings, his loss the rest of the way, especially with nine of the remaining 15 games on the road, is devastating.

Kidd, of course, is the Suns' second Olympian to go down in the last two weeks. Tom Gugliotta suffered a season-ending knee injury in the loss to Utah on March 10. Kidd will also be the third Sun to go under the knife in the course of a week. Gugliotta had surgery on his knee this past Friday and Suns reserve Rex Chapman had an emergency surgery to have his appendix removed on Saturday.

The encouraging news is that the Suns have done a great job of overcoming adversity in a season marked with one injury after another. Both Penny Hardaway and rookie Shawn Marion were out for extended periods and in one stretch, the Suns were without four starters. But they've never been without Kidd.

KID WHO REPLACED KIDD WASN'T TOO SHABBY: Randy Livingston stepped in for Jason and scored a career-high 17 points and had four assists in 24 minutes.

HO-HUM, ANOTHER GREAT TWO-WAY EFFORT BY THE CLIFFSTER: Cliff Robinson led the Suns with 26 points. And even as he took Minnesota star Kevin Garnett out of the game last week here, he silenced Kings' top gun Chris Webber this night. Webber wound up with 16 points, but most of those came after the game was safely tucked away in Al McCoy's deep freeze. And while early fouls were part of his problem, Robinson was a much bigger part.

ANOTHER LEG ON THE SIXTH MAN TROPHY: Rodney Rogers hit on 4-of-6 from three-point range and scored 18 points in 22 minutes, about par for him the last two months. And rival coaches continue to point to him as one of the big reasons the Suns have been able to overcome so much adversity.

ANOTHER "A" FOR "O": Oliver Miller, who had a season-high six blocked shots his first game back Monday, blocked four more and added 13 points in 25 minutes.

QUOTE,UNQUOTE:
Coach Skiles on Kidd: "The injury happened right in front of me, but I missed it. I know that when Jason Kidd says he's in a lot of pain, he's in a LOT of pain. He's about as tough as they come. The other guys did a great job when he went down, but he's a one-of-a-kind player and obviously we'll miss him."

Cliff's View: "You really hate to lose Jason. We've had so many things to deal with this year, but this will be the toughest blow for us to handle."

Randy' View: "Losing Jason is very unfortunate, but I just go out there and try to play hard and do my best whatever the situation is. Going against Jason every day in practice has really helped me and hopefully I'm ready for this."

My View: @#$%^%!!!