The Phoenix Suns added the Miami Heat to the
growing list of NBA teams they have run past this season. Amare Stoudemire
scored 34 points and the Suns won their seventh straight, and 18th in 19
games, 122-107 over the Heat on Tuesday night in a matchup of the teams
with the best record in the West and East.
All five Suns starters hit double figures - in the first half - and
Phoenix improved its NBA-best record to 31-4, the sixth-best start for a
team with four losses in league history. Four of the five ahead of them
went on to win the NBA title.
Shawn Marion added 26 points and 11 rebounds, Steve Nash 16 points and
16 assists and Joe Johnson 24 points and nine rebounds for the Suns, who
topped 120 points for the second game in a row and seventh time this
season.
Shaquille O'Neal had 34 points and 11 rebounds, but the Heat - beaten
at Seattle on Sunday - lost two in a row for only the second time this
season. The first was early November, the fifth and sixth games of the
season. Dwyane Wade added 23 points for Miami.
Phoenix shot out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter, and Miami
never was closer than 10 again.
The Heat cut the lead to 63-53 on Eddie Jones' 3-pointer with
2:06 left in the half. Stoudemire responded with a 14-foot jumper over
O'Neal, then Richardson's breakaway stuff after a Miami turnover made it
67-53 with 1:21 to go.
Wade lost control on a baseline drive, but the ball went in with 19.9
seconds to play in the half to cut the lead to 67-55.
In the fourth quarter, Stoudemire was knocked down by O'Neal, but
flipped the ball in
sidearmed as he fell. He made
the free throw for a three-point play to put Phoenix up 105-85 with 9:46
left.
O'Neal's basket cut it to 106-89, but Marion responded with a baseline
jumper, then Johnson made his fourth 3-pointer of the game, and third of
the half, and it was 111-91 with 7:24 remaining.
The game's
pattern was the same, but less one-sided, than Phoenix's 124-89 rout of
Indiana on Sunday. In that game, the Suns led
by 22 in the first quarter.
(Agencies)