PHOENIX – As Chris Paul brought the ball up the court with about three minutes to play, a fan about two-thirds of the way up Section 105 of the Footprint Center hollered, “Ball game!”
He was right. Paul drained one of his vintage pull-up jumpers, which all but sealed the Phoenix Suns’ 114-104 victory over the 76ers Sunday night.
The loss to the NBA’s best team will shift the Sixers’ positioning in a jam-packed top of the Eastern Conference. They entered the day tied with the Miami Heat for first place, and a half-game ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics.
The Sixers got off to a scorching start, shooting 60% in the first quarter and building a 15-point lead in the second when Danny Green grabbed his own three-point miss, dribbled to the opposite corner and buried the long-range shot. But the Suns steadily rallied back, and took a 71-69 lead on a Jae Crowder three-pointer with about eight minutes to play in the third.
Neither team created separation until the fourth, when Landry Shamet buried back-to-back three-pointers as part of an 18-6 run to propel the Suns’ lead to 101-90 with less than eight minutes to play. The Sixers answered with their own 10-0 spurt to get within one point on two Joel Embiid free throws, before Booker answered with an and-one jumper and Deandre Ayton followed with a jumper in the lane ahead of Paul’s big shot.
Embiid vs. Booker
Embiid has been an MVP frontrunner all season. Devin Booker, meanwhile, is making a late charge for the award, given his play while Paul was out with a thumb injury and that the Suns have already clinched the NBA’s best regular-season record.
Both players showed why on Sunday. Embiid finished with 37 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 assists, while Booker collected 35 points on 13-of-22 shooting.
Booker exploded for 22 first-quarter points on 8-of-11 shooting, mixing crafty finishes at the basket with mid-range and three-point jumpers. He went scoreless in the second, while the Sixers built their double-digit lead. But Booker regained his rhythm after the break, dribbling to the corner to drill a long jumper that tied the score at 81 before stepping to the free-throw line after an and-one jumper to put his team up, 89-84, while “MVP!” chants rained down.
Embiid, meanwhile, totaled 15 first-quarter points on 6-of-8 shooting but went 1-of-4 from the floor in the second. He had 10 points in the third, and suffered a brief health scare when he began limping after a shot attempt late in the period. As he walked gingerly back to the huddle, Booker checked in with him.
Harris surges, Maxey struggles
When the Sixers built a 14-point lead in the second quarter, Tobias Harris was the engine. His spin and finish inside, then a jumper on the Sixers’ next possession, pushed their lead to 51-37. In the second quarter, he had 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting and finished the night with 17 points and 8 rebounds.
That scoring punch was needed on a night when Maxey went 7-of-21 from the floor to finish with 18 points. He missed his first six three-point attempts before making one that gave the Sixers a 72-71 lead about midway through the third quarter, and hit two more in the fourth that cut the Suns’ lead to 101-98 with about five minutes to go.
Familiar faces
A couple Suns with Philly or Sixers ties made an imprint on the game.
Mikal Bridges, the former Villanova star and Sixers draft pick, finished with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He helped key the Suns’ comeback when he hit a corner three, threw down a transition dunk, and hit a jumper to cut the Sixers’ advantage to 54-50 with about five minutes to play in the first half.
Bridges, who played almost 41 minutes, also spent the bulk of the game guarding James Harden, who finished 2-of-11 from the floor, missing all six of this two-point shots.
After Bridges’ burst, Shamet, a former Sixer, made a three-pointer and converted a fastbreak dunk to get the Suns within 62-57. Then came his big shots in the fourth. Shamet went 4-of-7 from the floor.
Dario Saric, another former Sixer, remains out while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Suns coach Monty Williams was an assistant on Brett Brown’s 2018-19 Sixers staff before being hired by Phoenix, while lead Suns assistant Kevin Young is also a former Sixers assistant.
