Suns dominate OT to beat Cavs
CLEVELAND – Not themselves for long stretches and struggling with a team going nowhere, the Suns finally showed up in overtime.
Did they ever.
“We stayed the course,” Chris Paul said. “We came out and put the game away.”
Devin Booker scored 31 points, Paul added 23 and 16 assists and Phoenix scored the first 15 points of OT to outlast the under-manned
Cleveland Cavaliers 134-118 for their fifth straight win, keeping the Suns even with Utah atop the Western Conference standings.
Mikal Bridges made two 3-pointers, dunked, had a block and assist in the opening minutes of overtime and Phoenix outscored Cleveland 20-4 in the extra five minutes.
“We punched them first, jumped out to that lead and kept going,” said Bridges, who scored 22 and made four 3-pointers.
The Suns (47-18) are tied with Jazz for the West’s best record.
Phoenix let a late lead in regulation slip away to Cleveland, which was missing six players, including starting point guard Darius Garland, with injuries but battled one of the NBA’s best teams for 50 minutes before wilting.
“We ran out of gas,” said Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who only had a seven-man rotation. “Our guys gave us what they had. Phoenix made us pay for some mistakes early in OT.”
Cavs rookie Isaac Okoro scored a season-high 32 points and Collin Sexton 29 for Cleveland, which dropped its seventh straight.
Okoro muscled inside for a layup – on a play the Cavs ran for him out of a timeout – with 24.9 seconds left to tie it 114-all. The Suns had one last chance in regulation, but Booker dribbled himself into a bad situation in the corner and had to force up a long shot at the horn that missed.
Booker opened OT with a bucket and Bridges took it from there.
His first 3 made it 119-114, his dunk put the Suns up seven, and then shortly after swatting away Cedi Osman’s drive, Bridges hit his second 3 to make it 129-114. Ball game.
“He’s the consummate team guy,” Paul said of Bridges. “When he’s going, we go.”
SPECIAL SIGNING
Earlier in the day, Cleveland signed veteran center Anderson Varejão to a 10day contract, more of a ceremonial move to close his NBA career and celebrate 12 seasons with the Cavs.
Varejão was active but did not dress or play, disappointing some fans who had hoped to see the popular Brazilian get his first action for the Cavs since 2016.
The team played a video during a timeout in the first quarter to welcome back Varejão, who waved to the crowd.
Bickerstaff is confident having Varejão around for even a short period will benefit the team’s young players.