Patrick Mills scores 27 as San Antonio Spurs defeat Phoenix Suns 110 – 106 – NBA Recap
The San Antonio Spurs walked away with a 110 – 106 win against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday in a dead rubber. The Spurs had already secured the top seed in the Western Conference while the Phoenix Suns were out of the playoffs race.
The Spurs therefore decided to rest veteran key players for the fixture, such as Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. The Spurs have been extra cautious this year with their veterans and are wary of the threat younger teams could pose in the playoffs
despite their lofty position in the standings.
"'It's great to be in that situation, but as we showed last year, someone can sneak up and take you out easily," said Duncan. "Hopefully, we get a much better effort this year and do a much better job this year, and we stay away from those injuries.”
"Obviously, we don't want to do to go into a game somebody get hurt from some silly play."
In the absence of the more established names the Spurs youngsters stepped up, lead by Patrick Mills. Mills scored a game high 27 points and had 5 assists.
Centre Tiago Splitter also made a mark with 26 points and 5 assists to his name. DeJuan Blair and Kawhi Leonard also made it into double digits.
The Suns effort was spearheaded by Shannon Brown who scored 21 points and Sebastian Telfair came off the bench for 20. Michael Redd and Robin Lopez also made it into double figures.
Veteran Sun player Steve Nash took minimal part in the game and had 8 points to go with 7 assists while Marcin Gortat scored 9 with 10 rebounds.
The game got off to an even start and the scores were close in the opening exchanges. Both sides played well in the first quarter which ended with the Suns ahead at 29 – 26.
The Spurs were stronger in the second period. They scored 32 points in the second and held the Suns to just 24, overtaking them in the process and going into halftime up at 58 – 53.
The second half was not too different. Suns had the upper hand in the third quarter and managed to draw level, going into the final 12 minutes at 82 – 82.
An enthralling final quarter went right down the wire and it was Mills who held his nerve to sink the decisive free throws, handing Spurs the win.
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