Rogers Gives Credit to Bryant

One of the Phoenix players who looked as if he had a chance to stop Kobe Bryant’s game-winning shot was former Clipper Rodney Rogers.

Although teammate Jason Kidd had Bryant defended one-on-one, Rogers came over to help when Bryant drove toward the free-throw line.

But Rogers never got close enough to make a difference.

“The man made a tough shot,” Rogers said. “I didn’t really get my hand all the way over because Jason had his hand there. I figured he had it but [Bryant] made a difficult shot. You can’t say nothing about that.”

Rogers and his teammates, however, did have a few gripes with how the Lakers seem to get all the crucial calls and even a few non-calls, such as Penny Hardaway’s final drive of the game.

“It’s not fair and that’s all I can say,” Rogers said. “Make it a fair game and we’ll see what happens. . . . Our man goes to the hole and gets fouled but no call is made.

“But they [the Lakers] did a good job of maintaining their composure.”