Grant Hill scored season high 30 points as he led the Phoenix Suns to thunder past the Oklahoma City Thunder. The game took place at the Oklahoma City Arena, Oklahoma City, OK. More than 18,000 basketball fans attended the game.
The lead changed four times and the game was tied two times during a length of 2 hours and 27 minutes.
The only technical foul of the game was committed by Dan Majerle for the Phoenix Suns.
In a nutshell
The Phoenix Suns outran the OKC Thunder with 13 points as Nash made a floating jump shot after Green was fouled. Thunder led them with 30 in the third quarter but even those 30 points could not stop the Suns from winning the game they had their eyes on.
Box score
Phoenix Suns (13-13)
Hill scored season high and game high 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Steve Nash scored 20 points. Robin Lopez contributed 19 points to the box score that consisted of a large number of jump shots and four rebounds.
The team grabbed 12 rebounds.
Oklahoma City Thunder (19-9)
Kevin Durant scored team high 28 points, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and Nick Collison scored 19 points apiece and Thabo Sefolosha and James Harden scored 11 each for their team.
The team grabbed seven rebounds.
Stats
Hill scored his first 30 points since 2000.
Durant was the highest scorer of OKC. He scored 10 points alone in the fourth quarter.
Good play
Nash scored 20 points and dished out 11 assists for the Phoenix Suns.
Quotable
"Considering our circumstances tonight (being short-handed) we were really good tonight. Our defense was great we shot the ball well, I thought it was a really good win." Alvin Gentry, Suns coach later summarised his team’s play.
Game stats
Both the teams had a great shooting percentage of more than 58 in the fourth quarter. The Suns went on a five-shot advantage and then hit three more points to initiate a three-point difference game.
The game was tied with just 6:58 on the clock and the score was 94, the Suns lengthened up a 12-6 run in the next four and a half minutes that gave them a 106-100 lead. Oklahoma City Thunder could not close in to more than three points after that.
The Phoenix Suns were shooting 22 for 40 and their centre Lopez was 6 for 6.
OKC was shooting 12 for 43 in the first half of the game and scored 1 for 11 on 3 pointers.
The Suns played a defensive game throughout the game as per Coach Gentry’s instructions. They limited the Thunder to hit just 27.9% and 9.1% in the first half from long range.
Game stats
The Suns grabbed 37 rebounds whereas Thunder had 32. The Phoenix Suns took seven offensive rebounds and the OKC Thunder had 12. The Suns gave away 19 turnovers whereas OKC gave away 12.
OKC led the Suns with 15 fast break points against their eight. The Suns took the biggest lead with 13 points and Thunder had just three. Both the teams had 44 points in the paint.
Coming up next
For the Suns, Monday @ San Antonio, Thursday vs Heat, Sunday @ LA Clippers.
For the Thunder, Tuesday @ Charlotte, Wednesday @ New York, Saturday vs Nuggets.
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