Suns cruise, 1 win from West finals

The top-seeded Suns looked much more like their old selves Tuesday night.

All-Star guard Devin Booker said a little time in front of the TV with NBA coach of the year Monty Williams did wonders.

“We study film,” Booker said. “Coach is coming in with adjustments, we make them and we follow them.”

Booker scored 28 points, Deandre Ayton added 20 and the Suns pulled away for a lopsided 110-80 win over the fourth-seeded Mavericks to earn a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Suns bounced back after dropping the previous two games and can win the series in Game 6 on Thursday in Dallas. It won’t be easy: The home team has won the first five games.

The Suns used a huge third quarter to turn a tight game into a comfortable win. They opened up the second half on an 11-4 run, highlighted by Booker’s two 3-pointers, for a 61-50 lead.

Mavs coach Jason Kidd called for a timeout, but it did little to stop the onslaught. The Suns led 82-60 going into the fourth.

While the Suns were finally finding some offensive continuity, the Mavs completely lost theirs, scoring just four points in the first six minutes of the third. At times, their offense regressed to mostly watching Luka Doncic try and work magic, but he couldn’t do it all by himself. The Mavs had 12 turnovers during the third quarter. Doncic finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds, but acknowledged that the offense bogged down at times. Jalen Brunson added 21 points. The Mavs shot just 38% from the field.

“The one thing we didn’t do great today was our pace,” Doncic said. “In the last two games, our pace was very good. I think they are one of the best defensive teams, if not the best, in the NBA. They held us to 80. That’s pretty impressive. We’ve got to move the ball and have better pace — faster.”

The Suns’ Bismack Biyombo and Mavs’ Marquese Chriss were both ejected in the final seconds after exchanging words. TV cameras showed security officials going into the tunnel to make sure the players couldn’t get at each other after leaving the court.

Heat feeling good: Shots fell again for the Heat. They kept Joel Embiid and James Harden in check. Their coach got an in-game massage from DJ Khaled.

Yes, really.

It was that sort of night for the Heat, who — even without everyone getting shoulder rubs — are feeling pretty good about their playoff prospects again.

Jimmy Butler scored 23 points, Max Strus added 19 points and 10 rebounds, and the top-seeded Heat moved one win away from a trip to the Eastern Conference finals by topping the 76ers 120-85 on Tuesday in Miami.

The 35-point margin of victory matched the biggest so far in this year’s playoffs — the 76ers beat the Raptors by 35 in the series-clincher of that first-round matchup — and matched the second-largest in Heat postseason history.

“They were just more physical,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said. “We didn’t run anything. We didn’t run our stuff very well. We played at a snail’s pace ... everything they did tonight was harder and better. Their stuff was better, their energy was better.”

The Heat now lead the East semifinal series 3-2, and improved to an NBA-best 6-0 at home in these playoffs.

Joel Embiid scored 17 points for the fourth-seeded 76ers, who got 14 from James Harden and 12 from Tobias Harris. The 76ers were down by 15 going into the fourth, then gave up 12 consecutive points to open the period. “Tonight, we weren’t focused enough,” Embiid said. All the second-half highlights belonged to the Heat, with the exception of one moment stolen by courtside regular Khaled.

After the ball went out of bounds near his seat, Khaled grabbed the ball from a security guard, handed it to Strus, then headed to the scorer’s table while waving his arms and asking the fans to make some noise. And before returning to his courtside seat, the rapper gave Spoelstra a shoulder massage.