PHOENIX _ The 76ers no longer have an unblemished record.
They suffered a 114-109 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. As a result, the Sixers dropped to 5-1. Meanwhile, the Suns improved to 5-2, their best seven-game start since the 2013-14 season.
The Sixers pulled within 112-109 on a Furkan Korkmaz three-pointer with 3 seconds left. But Ricky Rubio responded with a pair of foul shots with 2.5 seconds left to give the Suns their five-point margin of victory.
Devin Booker had a huge hand in the outcome. The Suns guard finished with 40 points, marking the fifth consecutive time that he's scored 30-plus points against the Sixers.
The Sixers were without Joel Embiid, who served the second game of a two-game suspension for Wednesday's scuffle with the Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. The Suns were also without their starting center, Deandre Ayton, who is serving a 25-game suspension for violating the league's anti-drug policy by testing positive for a diuretic.
In Embiid's absence, normal starting power forward Al Horford started at center. Tobias Harris moved from small forward to power forward. That opened up a spot for Korkmaz at small forward alongside Horford, Harris, and guards Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson in the starting lineup.
Horford had his best offensive game as a Sixer.
A free-agent signee this summer, he finished with 32 points on 13 of 20 shooting _ including going 5-for-8 on three-pointers.
He hit buzzer-beating three-pointers at the conclusion of the first quarter and at end of the half. His shot before intermission gave the Sixers a 61-55 advantage.
Harris added 24 points before fouling out late in the game. Korkmaz had 20 points while making 4-of-7 three-pointers.
The Suns shot 53.2% for the game. But Booker took over the game in the third quarter, scoring the Suns' first 11 points of the half. He finished with 16 points in the quarter before continuing to do damage in the fourth.
Suns coach Monty Williams was the lead assistant to Sixers coach Brett Brown last season. He joined the Sixers' coaching staff in June 2018 after two years in the San Antonio Spurs' front office.
The Spurs job came after he spent the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He took a leave of absence after his wife, Ingrid, died in a car accident on Feb. 10, 2016, and after the season, it was announced that Williams would not return.
Before going to Oklahoma City, he had compiled a 173-221 record during five seasons as the New Orleans Pelicans' head coach. Before that, he spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers. He also was an assistant coach for the U.S. men's national team from 2013-16.
Williams said his biggest takeaway from last season was organizing his day again, after having served in the Spurs' front office.
"Then when I went to Philly, I was like right back into it," he said. "Brett threw everything at me. He was like, 'You got the offense.' I was like, 'OK.' It helped me to organize my basketball day again, getting used to sitting up late at night watching film sessions."
Williams said he couldn't have done what he's doing as the Suns coach without going through what he did last season with Sixers.
