Phoenix Suns put up a scoring show, cruise past Portland Trail Blazers 125-107 – NBA Recap
The Phoenix Suns scored a comfortable 125-107 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Phoenix Monday night. The victory officially put the Suns in the playoffs seedings for the first time, as they rose up to 8th position
in the Western Conference.
The Suns have the same win loss record as 9th placed Houston Rockets, but have the tie breaker with Houston owing to a better conference record. This has been a dramatic season for Phoenix, who entered the playoff break
under 0.5 in the win loss column, but since then have gone on an 18-9 win streak to finally make a place in the playoffs. They have 5 remaining games in the season however and could still lose their spot.
Marcin Gortat had a double-double to lead the Suns, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. J.J Hickson had 22 points and 8 rebounds for Portland, playing without LaMarcus Aldridge who has been sidelined for the rest of the
season with a hip injury.
Portland scored the opening basket of the game to go up 2-0 but that proved to be the only time they led in the match as Phoenix would go on to control the rest of the match. The Suns gained a 4-2 lead with a jump shot by Nash
and then never trailed.
A three pointer by Shannon Brown had Phoenix up 14-6, and a layup by Gortat extended the Suns lead to 29-17 deep. Phoenix finished the 1st quarter leading 35-24.
A jump shot by Jamal Crawford followed by a reverse layup by Nolan Smith ended a 16-8 quarter starting burst and brought Portland within 3, 43-30, with 6:38 remaining in the 2nd. But, Phoenix replied with 6 straight
points to extend their lead back to 49-40. Nearly a minutes later, the Suns ripped off a 16-8 run of their own to churn out a 66-53 half time lead.
Phoenix kept a comfortable throughout the 3rd period. The closest Portland came to Phoenix was 9 points at the 8:27 mark with back to back 2’s by Hickson. The Suns again opened up a big gap by going 6-0 to bring the
lead back to 79-64. It was followed by a 10-2 spurt and the Suns went into the final quarter leading 97-80.
They opened the final quarter with even more momentum, going on an 8-2 run to open the quarter and stretch their lead to 105-82, their largest lead of the night. Phoenix maintained a comfortable lead throughout the quarter to win
the game 125-107.
It was a great offensive night for Phoenix, who shot a season high 60% (51-of-85) from the field to score 125 points in regulation. They were equally good from the 3 point line, going 7 of 15 from the night.
Channing Frye scored 19 points off 8 of 11 shooting and grabbed 6 rebounds for the Suns. He was assisted by Shannon Brown who had 16 points off 7 of 10 shooting from the field. Jared Dudley had 18 points while Markieff Morris and
Sebastian Telfair came off the bench to score 14 and 12 respectively. Steve Nash had only 6 points but dished out 13 assists.
Jamal Crawford came off the bench to score 22 points for Portland, while Wesley Matthews added 19. Jonny Flynn started in place of starting guard Raymond Felton, but only managed 4 points and 6 dimes in 23 minutes of playing time.
Luke Babbitt started in place of Nicolas Batum, and scored 18 points going 7 of 17 from the field.
Portland shot 46.1% from the field and 38.1% from the 3 point line. They were, however, overwhelmed by the Suns shooting performance for the night. Phoenix also had 29 assists compared to 18 for Portland and managed 4 fewer turnovers
at 11. They outscored the Trail Blazers 27-11 in fast break points and 60-50 in points within the paint.
With this win, the Suns have opened up the Western Conference standings. For the moment, they are at 8th place and going to the playoffs. But there are still a few days left in the season and the last 3 spots in the
West are still up for grabs, with 5 teams fighting for them.
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