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After being outscored 31-20 in the first quarter, the Phoenix Suns surged back against the Dallas Mavericks in the second half and came away with a commanding 12-point victory to finish the preseason. Five Suns players scored in double figures.
Slow starts have been a trend for the past couple of days, as the Suns also trailed the San Antonio Spurs by five points following the first quarter on Tuesday before defeating the Spurs by 20.
The Suns outscored the Mavs 56-31 in the second half as several players on the team began hitting shots from beyond the perimeter. Though the Suns shot just 9-27 (33%) from deep overall, they shot 7-14 from three in the second half. Brandon Knight shot 2-5 from three and contributed 12 points, five rebounds and three steals, and Jon Leuer continued his impressive preseason campaign by shooting 3-4 from deep and scoring 11 points in 11 minutes. Mirza Teletovic also shot 2-5 from downtown.
Markieff Morris was the team's top scorer, dropping 18 points to go along with four rebounds in just under 30 minutes of action. However, T.J. Warren contributed arguably the best overall performance with 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in just 23 minutes.
The Mavericks were led by the dynamic duo of John Jenkins and Raymond Felton in the backcourt, who combined to score 39 points. The Mavs played without Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams, Samuel Dalembert, Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews, allowing the Suns to toss out their starting lineup (with the exception of Chandler) against Dallas' second-string unit. A win for Phoenix was mostly expected, but as Dallas proved early on in the game it certainly wasn't a guarantee.
The Mavs played a hard-fought game, outrebounding Phoenix despite starting Salah Mejri and Dwight Powell in the frontcourt. Tyson Chandler would have helped in that area, but Alex Len was able to hold down the starting center position regardless, contributing eight points, six rebounds and three blocks in 25 minutes.
Although the Suns were outrebounded, they forced Dallas to commit a whopping 21 turnovers and also held the Mavericks to a dismal 2-23 shooting from downtown as a team.
The Suns are now officially finished with the preseason, having gone 4-2 over the past couple of weeks. They will open their season at home against Dallas next Wednesday.