Sonics go cold from outside, fall to high-flying Suns at home
SEATTLE – Joe Johnson tossed balls through the hoop with ease. Amare Stoudemire slammed buckets in the lane. And Steve Nash ran the controls from the point, driving the fleet Phoenix machine.
Johnson matched a season-high with 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting and Stoudemire added 22 points, leading the Phoenix Suns to a 110-99 win over the Seattle SuperSonics on Sunday night.
“This was a good game for us,” Suns coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It follows up winning at Dallas and against Detroit, so we have had three good wins in the last couple of weeks. We are playing at a high level.”
Shawn Marion had 18 points and 10 rebounds while Nash added 12 points and 10 assists, and the NBA’s top scoring offense helped the Suns improve their road record to a league-best 24-7.
“The key is not to be complacent,” Nash said. “We’re a young team. We have to stay focused to keep this thing going.”
Ray Allen led the Sonics with 27 points, while Rashard Lewis had 26 points and 11 rebounds. But Seattle, which had won six of seven after the All-Star break, couldn’t match a series of runs by the fast-paced Suns.
“Everybody came to play. We just didn’t have the rhythm,” Allen said.
Antonio Daniels scored 14 points and Jerome James had 12. The perimeter-oriented Sonics also came up short in a very important statistic – shooting 3 of 27 from 3-point range for a season-low 11 percent.
“We missed some shots that we ordinarily hit,” Daniels said. “In the fourth quarter, we should have put more of an emphasis on attacking the rim. Sometimes, we bailed them out by just launching it.”
It was a matchup between two of the top three teams in the Western Conference, and both wanted it badly.
That was evident from the way the Suns’ bench players celebrated with the game in hand and by a rare ejection for Sonics coach Nate McMillan, whistled for two technical fouls in the fourth quarter.
When it was finally over, D’Antoni let out a deep breath and wiped his brow.
“We always step up to the plate, but this was a big game,” Stoudemire said. “I’m pretty sure both teams understood that.”
The Suns appeared to have things in hand after Nash’s jumper with 4:57 to play put Phoenix ahead 99-85, but Seattle crawled back. Allen made four free throws and Daniels completed a three-point play to trim the margin to 99-92 with 3:59 remaining.
Seattle couldn’t get the margin below 101-94 after two free throws by Lewis with 2:48 remaining. Sonics forward Nick Collison left with a broken nose early in the second period after colliding with Steven Hunter. Phoenix took the season series 2-1.