Suns rally to halt red-hot Knicks’ run
“We’re going to be ready.” — Devin Booker after Sunday’s loss at Brooklyn.
He was certainly ready to close out this brutal fivegame road trip out East with a win after consecutive losses.
The two-time All-Star scored 33 points
1,981 fans inside Madison Square Garden.
Booker’s consecutive 30-point performance would’ve been all for naught had his teammates not come through down the stretch of Monday night’s 118-110 win to snap New York’s nine-game winning streak.
“We wanted this one,” Booker said after the game.
before
“We wanted this one bad. Just for ourselves. Obviously we knew about the streak that they had going and we knew this was going to be a dogfight.”
Going 3-2 on the road trip, Phoenix (43-18) responded from consecutive losses to Boston and Brooklyn to top the red-hot Knicks (34-28) in the second of a back-to-back minus Jae Crowder (ankle) and Dario Saric (injury management, ankle).
“We’ve talked about being a resilient group all year long,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “To be able to finish a trip like this against the best in the East and lose a tough one yesterday and be able to bounce back and win a game like this after the start that we had says a lot about the group that we have in the locker room.”
The Suns trailed by 15 points in the first half, but outscored New York, 6247, in the second half.
Booker kept the Suns in it throughout it as he played 41 minutes inside a place that has always inspired him to play at another level.
The Garden.
“It’s obviously one of those that you mark going into the season,” Booker said. “Any chance to be around the aura and the feel of this arena and the history that has been through it, any competitor wants to perform.”
Then he got help from Cam Johnson, Chris Paul and Mikal Bridges.
Johnson and Bridges, who had been ice cold the previous two games, scored a combined 25 points in the second half for the Suns (43-18), who trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half.
“We talked to them during the game, we talked to them at halftime,” Booker said as Bridges and Johnson finished with 21 and 11 points, respectively. “I think they missed a couple of shots early and then had some open ones and passed up on them and we were telling them at halftime, ‘You’ve got to shoot those. That’s what our offense needs is for you guys to step up and makes those type of plays.’”
Then Chris Paul closed out the Knicks (34-28) in scoring Phoenix’s final seven points capped by a contested 3-pointer over Reggie Bullock with 14.5 seconds left.
After the 3, Paul celebrated with his teammates starting with Booker as he walked back to the bench with the Suns leading by eight.
“This is a fun team,” said Paul, who was wearing a green “LEGENDS” sweatshirt after the game. “Great group of guys to be around.”
The 16-year veteran and 11-time AllStar finished with 20 points, six assists and five rebounds.
Going 3-2 on the road trip, the Suns look ahead to a monumental two-game homestand starting Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers (43-20) and ending Friday against the West-leading
Utah Jazz (44-17).
With Utah losing for a second consecutive time to Minnesota (18-44), this one being in Minneapolis, and New Orleans defeating Los Angeles at home Monday night, Phoenix is now just a game behind the Jazz and ahead of the Clippers.
The Suns own the tiebreaker over the Jazz, but the Clippers have the tiebreaker edge on them.
a game