Steve Nash and his Phoenix Suns could do very little to stop Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant from racking up 40 points to lead his team to victory in Game One of the Western Conference Finals.

Bryant played the role of human wrecking-ball for the Lakers who pummeled Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns 128-170 Monday night.

"You got to tip your hat to the type of player performance he put on out there tonight," said Nash after the game.

Nash is recovering from a beat-up eye he suffered in the Suns' series against the Spurs. The Victoria native's eye was one swollen, hot mess, but he managed to drop the ball in the basket with his one good eye to help win the series.

He said he felt fine and his eye was the least of his concerns, Monday night. Nash's performance, however, did not match up to Bryant's. He scored 13 points and 13 assists for the Suns.

Nash said Bryant simply made a lot of shots and the Suns' defense cannot be completely to blame. Bryant simply sank everything he threw at the basket.

"Our bench wasn't great tonight. Our starters weren't great tonight," said Nash.

The Lakers are in familiar territory. They are the defending NBA Champions and were quick to adjust to the Suns speedy game. The Lakers ran the court setting Bryant up for his sixth-straight 30-point game and the 11th 40-point game of his playoff career.

"It's not like we're going to hang our heads and not try to win game two. We just got to play better," said Nash.

Nash knows his team's biggest challenge is the Lakers size.

"Our room for error is small," said Nash. "They're a lot bigger than we are. They put up a lot of points in the paint. They are probably going to continue to be bigger than we are as the series goes on."

The game plan for the Suns is to play solid defense, said Nash shrugging off questions about height from reports.

"They're really tall," said Nash. "It cuts down on a lot of our opportunities."

Nash and the Suns also need to get more offensive. The Lakers neutralized their speed game and the Suns must go back to the drawing board to cut-down on turn-overs and rebounds.

Size didn't stop the Suns from beating Bryant and the Lakers in the 2006 NBA Playoffs in seven games. The Sun went down 3-1 in the series before storming back, winning three straight.

"I expect better things from our team in Game Two," said Nash.

"We didn't earn it tonight. We didn't deserve it. They played better than us."