Phoenix Suns break Los Angeles Clippers winning streak to stay alive in playoffs race – NBA Recap
The Phoenix Suns defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 93-90 in a closely contested game here at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. The win helped Phoenix stay in contention of making it to the playoffs and broke the Clippers 5 game winning streak.
The Clippers have lost only 3 of their last 15 games after this loss, but the Suns gave the Clippers their 10th straight loss in Phoenix. Steve Nash had 13 points and 6 assists on the night and Chris Paul scored a team high 19 points and 10 assists.
There were 24 lead changes in total during the game and no team led by more than 4 points till late in the 3rd quarter. Both teams matched play with play and shot with shot. Phoenix led 46-45 at halftime.
The Clippers were trailing by one in the 3rd quarter when they went on a 12-2 run to gain their largest lead of the night at 67-58, with 3:54 remaining in the period. The Clippers run included back to back three pointers by Randy Foye, who was
3 of 4 from the three point range for the night.
Phoenix responded with back to back three pointers by Nash and Jared Dudley to bring the lead down to 67-64. Two free throws by Chris Paul to close the quarter gave the Clippers a 71-69 advantage heading into the final period.
The match was close throughout the final quarter. Robin Lopez was called for a flagrant foul on Blake Griffin and ejected from the game and on the same play. Mo Williams was given a technical foul for shoving Lopez after the play. Sebastian Telfair first
took the free throw for the technical and scored. Griffin then took two free throws for the Flagrant and scored 1 of 2. The Clippers received possession after Griffin’s free throws, and Paul scored on a jump shot to give the Clippers an 80-75 lead with 5:34
remaining in the game.
Phoenix responded with a three from Channing Frye followed by a jumper by Nash to tie the game again at 80. With the Suns leading 89-88, Paul was fouled by Telfair and went to the foul line, scoring both of his free throws to put the Clippers up by one.
Nash was then fouled by Kenyon Martin and he sank both of his free throws to have Phoenix up by one again.
Paul’s jump shot attempt for the lead in the final seconds of the game was blocked by Telfair, but the ball was collected by Williams who took a three point shot. He too missed and the Clippers fouled Frye who dropped both free throws to seal the 93-90 victory
for the Suns.
Jared Dudley had 18 points and was 4 of 7 from the distance for the Suns. Frye had 16 points and Marcin Gortat had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Blake Griffin had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers while Caron Butler added 17 points.
Both teams shot exactly 44.6% from the field, but the Suns were better at shooting from the distance for the night. They went 9 of 24 as compared to 5 of 16 for the Clippers. Phoenix had 22 assists compared with 15 for the Clippers, 10 of which came from
Paul alone. The Clippers blocked 5 shots as compared to 1 for Phoenix, but that was the crucial one.
Phoenix are now in 8th place in the Western Conference, but need to win their remaining games of the season if they want to make it into the playoffs.
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