(Basketball news) The Phoenix Suns thrashed the Chicago Bulls as they won 125-104. For the Suns, Devin Booker scored 35 points and matched his career high with six 3s, Durant added 20 points in his second game as Josh Okogie scored 25 points and made five 3-pointers. For the Bulls, DeRozan led the scoring with 31 points as LaVine had 27, but the 3-point struggles continued to be a big issue. Chicago was 7 of 23 from beyond the arc, while Phoenix made 20 of 47 shots. The Suns are fourth in the Western Conference, and have put themselves in position to finish the season on a strong note when they landed Durant from Brooklyn in a blockbuster trade three weeks ago. Durant continued to make a seamless transition following a sprained right knee that sidelined him for seven weeks. The 34-year-old star took just 10 shots, had nine rebounds and six assists, helping the Suns win their seventh in a row against Chicago.
“We’ve got a lot of big names,” Durant said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that have done so much in this league so far. But it’s about how we come together as a group, and I think this is a tightknit group, a tightknit organization. We’ll figure it out along the way.”
“We have (18) games left to find this chemistry and communication before playoffs start,” Booker said. “We’re trying to not take any day off. We’ve had extended practices every day, going over both sides of the ball and game plans and schemes – things that we’ve been doing for a few years here.”
“I think we have to take more 3s,” coach Billy Donovan said. “We’ve to change our shot profile when you go against an elite team. They took twice as many 3s as we did, and they made nearly three times as many as we did.”
The Brooklyn Nets made an extraordinary comeback as they beat the Boston Celtics 115-105. For the Nets, Bridges scored 38 points as they overcame a 28-point deficit while former Sun Cam Johnson added 20 points and Dorian Finney-Smith finished with 17. It is the largest comeback by a Boston opponent since the Los Angeles Clippers rallied from 28 points down to beat Boston 123-112 at TD Garden on Feb. 9, 2019. For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown led the scoring with 35 points as Jayson Tatum, who is celebrating his 25th birthday, added 22 points and 13 rebounds. With this result the Nets remained in 4th place in the Eastern Conference standings.
“I think we kind or realized over a couple of games that offense wasn’t really our problem,” Bridges said. “I feel like our offense is pretty good. But our defense, we got stops and stayed together possession-by-possession. … We just kept and stayed together.”
“I think when I got traded it was kind of at the right time because when everybody was out in Phoenix I had to take up another role offensively and be more aggressive,” Bridges said. “By the time I got traded I was in a great rhythm and was confident.”
Also read: NBA: Kyrie and Doncic combine for 82 points while Warriors thrash Clippers
