(Basketball news) The Phoenix Suns shocked the Boston Celtics as they beat them 106-94. For the Suns, Mikal Bridges scored 25 points and Dario Saric had 14 points with 13 rebounds as Chris Paul added 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds. The Suns lost nine of their first 11 games after the three-time All-Star Devin Booker went out, but have won seven of the last nine matches while they wait for his return. For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown scored 27 points and Jayson Tatum had 20 points to end the NBA-leading side to their fourth loss in six games. With this result the Suns improved their record to 28-26 and moved up to 6th in the standings.
”I’m mindful of what I say because I don’t want to get everybody excited about it, or depress everybody, either. It’s just where he is,” Suns coach Monty Williams said before the game. ”We do feel like he’s getting closer and closer to coming back.”
”For us to win it without Book is big for everyone’s confidence, because he will be back shortly,” center Jock Landale said. ”We would have liked to win a few more games, but now that we’re winning a lot of games and he’s on the verge of coming back, it’s big for us.”
The Indiana Pacers bounced back from their disappointing loss to the Lakers as they beat the Sacramento Kings 107-104. For the Pacers, Buddy Hield scored 21 points against his former team while Aaron Nesmith added 17 points as Myles Turner had 14 points and 13 boards. For the Kings, Harrison Barnes led the scoring with 23 points as Kevin Huerter scored 16, while Sabonis and Terence Davis each had 15 points. Sacramento was without leading scorer De’Aaron Fox, who sat out for personal reasons. With this result the Paces improved their record to 25-29.
”Especially against your old team, it’s always good to get the win,” Hield said.
”(Hield) made some big shots down the stretch,” Turner said.
”We didn’t react trying to foul,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. ”It’s on us as a staff to remind them to foul, if we’re down three and the clock is below 24 seconds and we’re down three points or two or one. That’s just a teaching point.”
”You’ve got to be able to box out,” he added. ”You can’t give up second shots. We didn’t do any of that down the stretch. Throughout the course of the game, our turnovers were terrible. It really hurt in a one-possession game to have 20 of them on the road. Our inability to communicate on defense against a team – and give up too many good looks – that can shoot like the Pacers, was not good.”
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