Suns step up the defense in fourth quarter, beat depleted Clippers 124-108
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Phoenix Suns outscored the Clippers 32-15 in the fourth quarter and beat the short-handed Clippers in Los Angeles on Wednesday night 124-108.
The Clippers had a 106-101 lead with 7:37 left in the game when Los Angeles went cold from the floor and the Suns went on a 19-2 run during the next six minutes to put the game away.
Devin Booker scored 37 points on 13-24 shooting after scoring only 12 points on 1-11 shooting on Tuesday night.
Kevin Durant had 24 points and nine rebounds.
Jusuf Nurkic returned from injury and had three points and 19 rebounds plus 10 assists.
It looked like déjà vu in the first quarter, when the Clippers jumped out to a 10-2 lead with 8:51 left.
But then the Suns went on their own 16-5 run, getting an 18-15 lead after back-to-back Booker 3s.
Suns had a 28-27 lead after one quarter.
Phoenix saw their lead grow to 51-36 after Bradley Beal hit a layup with 4:59 remaining in the second quarter.
But then the Clippers bounced back as the Suns’ defense was lackluster, going on a 20-5 run to take the lead into halftime, 56-55.
After scoring 16 points in the first quarter, Booker had zero points in the second quarter.
After being down by as many as 37 points on Tuesday night, Suns head coach Frank Vogel switched up his starting lineup. Royce O’Neale made the start instead of Grayson Allen, who missed 14 straight 3-point shots coming into the game.
Wednesday’s matchup shouldn’t have been much of a game since the Clippers rested four of their five starters from Tuesday’s 105-92 win over Phoenix.
Los Angeles is in the fourth seed and will likely stay that way since they’re 3.5 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the third seed and 1.5 games ahead of the fifth-place Dallas Mavericks.
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