Phoenix Suns lose 4th straight, Oklahoma City clinches a win, 116-98 at Phoenix
NBA: Oklahoma City thundered past the Phoenix Suns darkening the days even further for them, with 116-98, Wednesday night at the US Airways Center, Phoenix. Too bad for Phoenix Suns who lost fourth in a row and are no more in the play-off race.
Vince Carter who was moved to the bench three games ago, scored a game high 28 points from off the bench. A poor performance from the Phoenix Suns’ starters became the main reason of the loss. The starters failed to show energy and could only score 44 points
for the losing team. At the other hand, the OKC saw five of its players score in double figures with James Harden at the top with 22 points, three steals, three rebounds, and two assists. Kevin Durant also had 22 points in an 8 for 18 overall shooting.
Russell Westbrook clinched 16 points and dished out eight assists in 31 plus minutes of the victory. The guard had a good control on the game and impressed his coach Scott Brooks who later said, “Russell was really good tonight. He’s had better stats in
the past but he really controlled the game. He was active on the ball, and I thought his command of the game put us in a position to win tonight."
Serge Ibaka had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder who now seem to be out there to win every game they play. OKC has won 11 out of previous 12 contests and are enjoying the No. 4 position in the Western Conference. They can surpass
the Dallas Mavericks by winning just three games to seal No. 3 spot. They have eight more games left to play and anything is possible with the demeanor that they are playing.
Both the teams played with efficiency in the first quarter but it was two three-pointers hit by Durant and Harden each, that gave them an edge over the Suns, 33-28. They maintained the lead very well and carried a four point lead into the locker room.
The Thunder never gave up the lead and even when Dudley brought it as close as 57-58, OKC pushed ahead to deprive the Suns of that. The Thunder never looked back throughout the game after that. They recorded 79-73 and went into the fourth quarter.
Oklahoma City was leading the opposition, 89-80, before the Thunder stroke to blow out the game completely for the Suns. They took a powerful 13-2 run over them that happened to be a tirade of fouls by Kendrick Perkins to breathe only at 102-82. With just
four minutes and 17 seconds in hand, the Suns tried their best but could not go farther than 98-116, hence resulting in their fourth straight loss.
In a game that lasted for 31 minutes, Suns’ Channing Frye could only generate eight points going a meager 3 for 7 from the field.
Suns center/ forward Marcin Gortat who grabbed 10 rebounds and was just one point shy of a double-double shed light on the reason of his team’s loss when he said, “It was a bad night for us. We played terrible defence. We played with no toughness or physicality.”
Suns’ Zabian Dowdell and Aaron Brooks were ejected from the game after they got into a quarrel with referee of the game, Ken Mauer. Dowdell had two whereas Brooks scored seven points in the loss.
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