Sacramento got a stunning 60 points from its frontline of Jason Thompson (21), Spencer Hawes (20 and 10 boards) and Andres Nocioni (19). Shaquille O'Neal, meanwhile, offset his 24 points and nine boards with nine missed free throws, unable to live up to the O'NEALOVIC jersey he was handed before tip-off by Aleksandar Stojanovic of the RTS network in Serbia, who was in town for Vlade Divac's forthcoming jersey retirement Tuesday night.
The Suns' pregame mood was actually fairly upbeat given the manner of the Utah loss, with Shaq happily pulling on the jersey from Serbia's national team with his usual No. 32 and the new name. A visit to the Phoenix locker room by Divac himself, after years of testy battles with O'Neal, only lightened the mood further, with the former foils exchanging a hug before Shaq jokingly exclaimed for all to hear: "Why the [expletive] are they retiring your jersey?"
