Sports / Basketball |
Red hot Suns run winning streak to 13(AP)Updated: 2006-12-16 16:39 PHOENIX - The Suns are still streaking, thanks largely to the multiple talents of Boris Diaw. The Frenchman had his fifth career triple-double to help Phoenix run its winning streak to 13 games — one shy of the club record — with a 105-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. "Boris was unbelievable," coach Mike D'Antoni said. The Suns, though, were far from their best after a five-game trip. They led by 25 early in the second quarter, but blew most of it by halftime and trailed by as many as eight in the third quarter. "It doesn't mean a lot," Diaw said of his 21 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists. "The win is the most important thing, and I got some lucky rebounds. Sometimes the ball is falling in your hands, and sometimes your teammates make big shots." It was his first triple-double after four in his breakout season a year ago. Amare Stoudemire had 25 points, including a three-point play that put Phoenix ahead for good, 97-95 with 3:46 to play. Steve Nash scored 16 points and had just five assists for Phoenix, the last a bullet pass to Shawn Marion for a game-sealing dunk with 7.8 seconds to go. "That's Phoenix Suns basketball, man," Marion said. Monta Ellis scored 24 points, Baron Davis 19 and Mickael Pietrus 18 for the Warriors. The Suns go to Sacramento on Saturday night to try to match their club-record 14-game winning streak set in December 1992. No. 13 was shaky, though. "We didn't play well tonight," Nash said. "We didn't shoot the ball particularly well against the zone and we weren't really smooth. After a long road trip that sometimes happens, so we'll see if we can get it out of our system tomorrow." Davis' 3-pointer put the Warriors ahead 95-94 with 3:59 to play. Stoudemire muscled inside for the basket and was fouled for the go-ahead three-point play. Then Marion's 12-footer, on Diaw's 10th assist, boosted the lead to 99-95 with 2:42 to go. Diaw's two free throws made it 103-96 1:25 from the finish, but Golden State scored five in a row to cut it to 103-101 on a dunk by Andris Biedrins with 14.2 remaining. Nash brought the ball downcourt, and instead of running out the clock and waiting to be fouled, threw a sharp pass from midcourt just above the rim, where Marion grabbed it for a game-clinching dunk. Nash said he was going to wait to be fouled but worried about getting trapped. "Rather than wait for the unknown," Nash said, "I just threw it." Mike Dunleavy's 3-pointer punctuated a 7-0 spurt that gave Golden State an 80-72 lead with 3:11 left in the third. The Suns, though, scored the final 10 points of the quarter, going up 82-80 when Raja Bell made a 19-foot runner at the buzzer. Bell drew an offensive foul from Dunleavy to give Phoenix the ball for its final third-quarter shot. "It looked like it was over early, but this one we got back in it and just kept trying to hustle," Golden State coach Don Nelson said. "We had a shot at it, to be quite honest with you. We just needed to make some shots, but we didn't. We went cold at the wrong time." Still, it was an encouraging effort for a Warriors team at the start of a six-game road trip. "Hopefully we can learn from this and take this with us on the road," Davis said, "and understand if we can just play with energy and passion that down the stretch it's anybody's ball game." Golden State missed its first 13 shots and the Suns took a 16-2 lead on Diaw's layup with 6:17 left in the first quarter. The Suns, who shot 61 percent in the first quarter but 43 percent for the game, got 15-footers from Marion and Kurt Thomas to go up 34-17 after one. Stoudemire's three-point play gave Phoenix its biggest lead, 47-22 with 8:28 to go in the half. From there, the Warriors outscored the listless Suns 30-7, slicing the lead to 54-52 on Anthony Roberson's two free throws with 1:04 to play in the half. Phoenix scored the last five points of the half, a 3-pointer by Nash and Diaw's tip-in, to lead 59-52 at the break. |
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