It wasn't pretty for most of the game but the Suns really fought hard at the end and pulled out a win over Dallas. Eric Bledsoe scored seven of his 26 points for the night in the last 1:14 of the game to help put it away. Eric led the Suns with 26 points and 7 assists. Devin Booker scored 22 on 9-17 shooting and hit 3 of 3 from downtown. Tyson Chandler had 18 rebounds, Alex Len scored 14 points with 7 rebounds and Brandon Knight scored 17 points on 6-11 shooting.
The Suns played aggressive on defense but kept the fouls relatively low for them (21) but one of the keys to this game was that they out rebounded the Mavs 53 to 31. Dallas actually shot better from the field than the Suns (45.6% vs 44.7%) but the Suns had more shot attempts (85 vs 79) and shot better from three (41.2% vs 31.0%) for the game although they had problems hitting threes early (0.0% in the first quarter).
Dallas was led by Deron Williams with 20 points, Harrison Barnes with 19 and Seth Curry with 16.
1st Half
The game started slow with both the Suns and Mavs missing shots early. The pace stayed fairly slow with the first quarter ending with Dallas leading. T.J Warren and Devin Booker led the Suns in the 1st quarter with 7 an 6 points respectively. Dirk Nowitzki and Deron Williams led the Mavs with 5 points each. The Suns shot only 33.3% from the field and 0.0% from three. Dallas shot 40.9% and 37.5% from three with no turnovers for the quarter.
22-19 Dallas at the end of the 1st quarter.
The second quarter started off with a 7-0 run by the Suns but the Mavs quickly countered and took a 45-41 lead at halftime. The Suns shot 40.9% for the half but only improved their 3 point shooing to 12.5%. The Suns bench outscored the Dallas bench 17 to 8 in the first half which kept the Suns close at halftime. Dallas wasn’t shooting much better than the Suns in the first half (43.2% and 26.7% from three) which also helped keep the game close.
45- 41 Dallas at the half.
2nd Half
The Suns seemed to pick up the pace in the third quarter and took the lead at the 6:59 mark 53-51 after Bledsoe went on a one man 5-0 run. The Suns pushed the lead to 8 before the Mavs mounted a comeback to take a 2 point lead at the end of the third period. Too many fouls and turnovers in this period by the Suns. A really bad in-bounds pass by P.J. Tucker at the end of the quarter led to a turnover that Devin Harris turned into a 3 point shot at the buzzer that gave Dallas a two point lead going into the fourth.
72-70 Dallas at the end of the 3rd quarter.
In the fourth period the teams traded buckets and lead changes until the Suns went up for good 96-93 with 1:14 left to play. The Suns did try to give it away a few times with with turnovers but tonight was just their night even with all the mistakes they made near the end. The Suns made a comeback instead of giving the game away late for a change!
Final score Suns 102 Mavericks 95.
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