NBA Recap: Phoenix Suns squeak out 112-88 win over Golden State Warriors
Steve Nash notched 18 points and dished out 11 assists, to help Phoenix Suns squeak out 112-88 victory over Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.
Channing Frye posted 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Suns, who have won five of their last six games. Suns took second straight victory over Warriors in four nights to reach .500
(25-25) mark for the first time since they were 13-13 on 19 December. The 24-point margin of victory for Suns is their largest of the season.
“We’d like to be at about .650 but we have a lot of work to do,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “I thought we did a good job. We took care of business right from the start.”
Jared Dudley poured in 13 points off the bench in a well-balanced effort, including his first dunk of the season, and Robin Lopez tallied 12 points for Suns. Rookie Zabian Dowdell replaced
the injured Goran Dragic and posted 10 points - six more than he could ever have in an NBA game.
Dudley, who had assured to make 10 dunks this season, got plenty of grief from his teammates after he finally made one dunk.
“Man, Dudley made one and I missed one,” Frye said. “Somebody should go outside and see if pigs are flying.”
Despite having five players in double figures, Warriors lost another game to Phoenix. Ekpe Udoh and Reggie Williams each tallied 16 points off the bench while Stephen Curry notched 12 points.
Monta Ellis, the fourth-leading scorer in the NBA at 25.4 points per game, finished with only eight points on 4 of 13 shooting.
Phoenix led by as many as 12 points in the first quarter, carrying a 32-22 edge into the second. Suns extended their lead to 23 points at 65-42 when Nash hit a Jumper to start a 14-0 run
to end the second quarter.
Warriors went scoreless in the span of final 3 ½ minutes of the first half and the first 3 ½ minutes of the second, allowing Phoenix to complete a 20-0 run. Warrior missed 13 shots during
that stretch.
Frye made a Jumper, and then Vince Carter capped the burst with a bucket to give Phoenix a 71-42 edge. The 20-pont run ended when Ellis made a 14-foot jumper with less than nine minutes remaining
in the third quarter.
Phoenix carried an 87-61 lead into the fourth quarter and enhanced its lead to 33 points at 94-61 when Zabian Dowdell hit a jumper to seal the victory.
“Our defence has been pretty good the last couple of weeks,” Nash said. “That has given us an opportunity to take some pressure off the offense and build some leads.”
Warriors are 0-3 against Suns this season.
Coach Keith Smart said that Warriors did not have the energy necessary to keep up with Phoenix.
“You share with the younger players how hard it is that you have to play every night in the NBA, back to back in particular,” he said, “but there’s nothing you can do with it. We didn’t play
well to start the game off in the first half. We didn’t have the energy we needed to have against this team.”
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