|
Home>News Center>Sports | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Suns set record in 121-100 win over Magic
Leandro Barbosa scored 19 points in relief of foul-plagued Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns set a team record for best start to a season with a 121-100 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday night.
The Suns improved to an NBA-best 18-3, their finest start in the franchise's 37-year history. Phoenix has won 14 of 15 for the first time in eight seasons.
Quentin Richardson scored 26 points, including 6-of-12 3-pointers, to lead the NBA's highest-scoring team to its fourth 120-plus-point game of the season.
Amare Stoudemire added 21 points, Shawn Marion had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Joe Johnson scored 18.
Nash, limited to 27 minutes, scored a season-low six points but had 10 assists.
Grant Hill scored 23 points, Steve Francis 18 and Cuttino Mobley 15 for Orlando. Dwight Howard had 18 rebounds but was just 2-for-10 shooting.
Nash was sitting with four fouls when the Suns outscored the Magic 18-8 to go up 88-77 on Marion's two free throws with 45.3 seconds left in the third quarter. Barbosa scored five, including a 3-pointer, in the surge, which came after Orlando had cut the lead to 70-69.
Richardson sank two 3-pointers and Nash one in an 11-5 spurt to start the fourth quarter to give Phoenix a 99-84 lead with 9:16 to go. The Magic never got closer than 13 again.
Orlando's 12-2 run put the Magic up 39-38 on Hill's jumper with 6:09 left in the first half. But four Suns scored in a 14-4 outburst that put Phoenix back on top, 52-43 after Johnson's 3-pointer 2:20 before the break.
The lead reached 56-45 on Steven Hunter's stuff, but Orlando scored the last four points of the half to cut it to 56-49.
Nash drew his fourth foul and left the game with 7:20 to play in the third quarter, and Francis' three-point play cut the lead to 70-69 with 5:50 left. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
