First it was Charlotte breaking a losing streak and coming in with lots of injuries, but they won in Phoenix anyway. Then it was Orlando, coming in after a bad loss on the road to surprise the Suns with a big win. Now, it's the Miami Heat taking a win in Phoenix, 103-97, behind 34 points from Chris Bosh in a slogfest that was ugly to watch.
The script that didn't need any writing, just a copy machine. The Phoenix Suns dropped to 12-11 on the season with a lackadaisical loss to the Heat that was as painful to watch as the final score might suggest.
First quarter
The Suns started the game like they were only a few hours removed from their most depressing loss of the season. Slogging through the mud.
Two Keef jumpers, three missed threes and two turnovers later, the Suns were down 9-2 when Hornacek called timeout. The out-of-timeout call was a post-up by Bledsoe, but he walked.
Finally, the Suns woke up a bit with a Plum slam and a couple wide open threes by Dragic and Keef, who is now a big time threat from three.
But Chris Bosh started 4-4 on layups against Plumlee, then Len came in contested three straight drive to the rim and changed the momentum in the Suns favor.
By the end of the quarter, the Suns had sleepwalked to only a three point deficit thanks to some active defense by Len and a cameo by Tyler Ennis.
Second quarter
Tyler Ennis started the quarter with a nice pick and roll to Marcus Morris for a jumper, and the Suns scored 6 straight points overall with Len (21) and Ennis (20) on the floor with Tolliver, Green and Mook.
Anthony Tolliver seems to have found his three-point stroke, making his first attempt of the night and playing active defense.
The backup Suns played the backup Heat fairly well until Dwyane Wade came back in for some quick scores and the Suns responded with Bledsoe and soon all the starters followed.
Just before being subbed out, Len got his ankle rolled up on and came up with a limp. Still, he's probably playing better with a limp than a healthy Plumlee.
By midquarter, the Heat started posting up Dragic with Wade like many Suns opponents lately. On the first, Dragic contested the shot enough to get the turnover, then committed a foul, then got some great help from Plumlee on a faceplant block.
Someone got a gif of that Plumlee block?
The Suns kept the lead the rest of the half partially thanks to Plumlee's hustle and partially thanks to the Miami Heat really not playing very well.
Still the Suns only had a 5-point lead at half, 51-46.
Chris Bosh had 10 points, 5 rebounds at the half for the Heat.
Markieff Morris had 10 points, 2 rebounds and Marcus had 11 with 4 rebounds to lead the Suns.
Third quarter
Chris Bosh started the second half with 5 quick points on a jumper and a three, while the Suns had a lazy turnover in between. Hornacek called a TO within 54 seconds.
The Heat slogged down the game and the tired Suns complied, allowing the quarter to drag along at a snail's pace. By the end of the third, the Heat had a 1-point lead behind Bosh's offensive onslaught of 14 points.
No other highlights to discuss in this quarter. Goran Dragic helped keep the Suns close with 8 points.
Fourth quarter
The Heat started with energy and threatened to stretch the lead but Alex Len blocked a Haslem shot and the Suns started raining threes down (Tolliver, Mook and two for Green) to give the Suns a 4-point lead with 8:49 left.
Somehow, the Heat cannot get it into their heads that Gerald Green loves the pullup three from the angle. Green was 4-5 on threes by this point in the game, every one of them needed by the Suns badly.
Let me be straight, for those not watching the game: it was ugly and slow all night long. The Heat play at the league's second-slowest pace, and the Suns were dog tired from getting in at 3:00am after that slugfest in LA.
The Suns just had to find a way to pull this out. It wasn't going to come easy. The Heat took the lead a minute later and the Suns looked scuffly again.
The only thing keeping the Suns alive is making 14-of-29 threes to this point.
The Heat just kept slowing the game down more and more, and the Suns couldn't stop them. And they couldn't get themselves playing fast either.
Then Chris Bosh went on a personal 7-0 run and the Heat scored on every possession down the stretch. Even continued threes from the Suns couldn't close the gap because the Heat just kept making their own.
And when they missed (Wade) they didn't grab the rebound. Wade grabbed his own rebound on the bounce and walked into a layup to put the Heat up 5 with 33 seconds left.
Suns doing Suns things.