Phoenix Suns wraps up a four-game street swing on Sunday in opposition to a Dallas Mavericks staff that seeks consecutive wins for the primary time because the All-Star break.
In its second sport since Kevin Durant joined the lineup, Phoenix scored a second straight blowout win on Friday with its 125-104 romp at Chicago. Durant — acquired in a commerce from Brooklyn final month — completed with 20 factors, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in opposition to the Bulls.
He debuted with 23 factors and 6 rebounds on Wednesday in Charlotte, serving to the Suns to a 105-91 win over the Hornets.
“He’s just being himself,” Devin Booker mentioned of Durant in a postgame interview with Bally Sports Arizona following Friday’s win. “That’s what we need from him. He’s on a minute restriction, and he’s still getting to it. The more aggressive he is — you see them doubling him tonight — just freed up shots for everybody.”
Booker capitalized on being freed with Durant on the ground throughout every of the final two video games, scoring 37 factors in Charlotte and 35 in Chicago. Booker and Durant accounted for 2 of the three Phoenix scorers with 20-plus factors on Friday, as Josh Okogie completed with 25.
As for Durant’s playing-time restriction, he performed 26:50 and 30:54 in his two preliminary appearances since becoming a member of the Suns after an MCL sprain.
Phoenix comes into Dallas with a possibility to shut its street journey at 3-1 and as a winner of three straight. The Mavericks, in the meantime, search their first back-to-back wins since a three-game run ended on February 10.
Dallas rebounded from consecutive losses to the Los Angeles Lakers final Sunday and Indiana on Tuesday with a 133-126 win in opposition to Philadelphia on Thursday.
The 133 factors marked the Mavericks’ third-highest scoring output of the season, and so they have now registered two of their three- most prolific video games of the marketing campaign since getting back from the All-Star break. They got here out of the break with 142 factors in a 26-point rout of San Antonio.
Thursday’s win additionally resulted in a franchise first. Luka Doncic’s 42 factors and Kyrie Irving’s 40 marked the primary time two Mavericks reached at the very least 40 in the identical contest.
“They understand they’re the leaders of the team,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd mentioned in his postgame press convention. “They set the tone, not just finding each other, but playing off one another (and) their gravity being able to find their teammates.”
Dallas rounding into kind offensively might be challenged by Phoenix’s arrival, with the Suns amid one among their greatest defensive stretches of the season.
Phoenix opened its street journey with a three-point loss on February 26 in Milwaukee, however the Suns gave up solely 104 factors in opposition to the Bucks in what was their final sport with out Durant.
Following Friday’s win, Phoenix coach Monty Williams mentioned the staff “played the kind of defense we’re capable of playing.”
The Mavs have received two of three conferences this season with Phoenix, together with a 130-111 choice on December 5 in the one earlier conflict in Dallas.
