Soaring Suns collide with red-hot Clippers
The Phoenix Suns dominated both sides of the floor in recent back-to-back victories over Eastern Conference contenders Detroit and Cleveland.
The Suns will look to cap a strong stretch on Sunday when they host the Los Angeles Clippers to conclude a five-game homestand, their longest of the year.
Phoenix ran up leads of 21 and 33 points in harassing the Pistons and Cavaliers in double-digit victories Thursday and Friday, which stretched their winning streak to three.
"That's our coaching, our DNA," reserve guard Jordan Goodwin said in a TV interview. "We're going to bring it every night. Make it difficult for teams. It's fun watching us now. It's our vibe, it's our culture, our mindset. Next-man-up mentality."
"We're rolling right now."
The Clippers had their roll slowed in a 122-109 loss at Denver on Friday, but that was just a blip in a stretch where they have gone a league-best 16-4 since Dec. 20 to emerge as a viable playoff contender after a 6-21 start.
"We're confident," Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. "We're playing well, but we've still got to play better. We still have to run through the tape and continue to execute the right way."
Phoenix has made similar forward progress. The Suns are 15-7 since Dec. 20, the third-best record in league, and are 29-15 since Halloween, the fourth-best.
They also got deeper Friday, when Jalen Green scored 11 points in 16 minutes after missing a week with a right hamstring injury that has bothered him since training camp. He has played in only five of the Suns' 49 games.
The Suns played arguably their two most complete games against Detroit and Cleveland, focusing defensively on top scorers Cade Cunningham and Donovan Mitchell, respectively.
Detroit shot 42.5% from the field and made only 6 of 29 3-pointers (20.7%). Cunningham, who had 26 points, was 8 for 22 shooting and 2 of 9 from distance.
"The group that we found, the connectiveness that we found, the system (coach Jordan Ott) has with the personnel that we have, everything has just clicked so far," Suns guard Grayson Allen said.
"It feels like everything is going to get better. We're moving the ball better offensively as it goes on. Figuring out our pressure defensively and rotations and trusting each other. It feels like we've gotten a lot better since the first month of the season."
The Clippers ran into an historic performance Friday, when Nikola Jokic had 31 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists in 24:32 in his return from a left knee injury that kept him out for 16 games. He is the first player in league history to reach those plateaus in less than 25 minutes.
James Harden had 25 points and nine assists, and Kawhi Leonard had 21 points and six assists against the Nuggets.
Leonard has scored at least 20 points in 26 straight games.
"We're still in a hole," Leonard said. "We still have to win our games no matter what the circumstance is right now. We have to keep moving forward and try to become a better basketball team right now."