Balanced attack fuels Phoenix Suns past LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
The line of fans to enter Footprint Center extended from the arena entrance all the way out to Jefferson Street for a Sunday afternoon game in sunny Phoenix.
The Los Angeles Lakers were in town.
Their All-Star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis showed up — but so did the Phoenix Suns.
Six Suns reached double figures with four going for 20 or more in Sunday’s 123-113 win to snap a two-game skid before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.
Grayson Allen scored a team-high 24 points, hitting 6-of-12 from 3, Kevin Durant went for 22 points, Devin Booker delivered 21 and Royce O’Neale dropped 20 in starting for the injured Bradley Beal.
In his first start for the Suns since coming over from Brooklyn in a three-team deal before the trade deadline, O’Neale nailed 6-of-10 from deep Sunday after going 2-of-12 on 3s in back-to-back road losses to Dallas and Houston coming out of the NBA All-Star break.
Jusuf Nurkic posted a double-double of 18 points and a season-high 22 rebounds, one shy of tying his career high, to go along with seven assists in his matchup against Davis while Bol Bol followed up his season-high 25 points and 14 rebounds Friday at Houston with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting Sunday.
The Suns (34-24) led by as many as 20 points in getting a second straight win over the Lakers (31-28) after dropping the first three matchups with two of those coming in the In-Season Tournament.
James paced the Lakers with a game-high 28 points and 12 assists while Davis added 22 points with 18 coming in the second half and 14 rebounds.
Beal missed his fourth straight game due a left hamstring injury suffered Jan. 13 against Sacramento while Eric Gordon sat out with left groin soreness after playing in Friday's game.
Phoenix will have three days between Sunday’s game and its third matchup against Houston on Thursday at Footprint Center. The Suns will have played the Rockets three times in four games as they’ll battle one final time in the regular season Saturday in Phoenix.
The season series is tied 1-1 with the Rockets taking the second matchup, 114-110, last week in Houston.
On Sunday, Phoenix led, 72-63, at the break with Booker scoring 13 points, Nurkic and O’Neale each having 12 while Bol and Allen adding 11 each in the first half.
D’Angelo Russell paced the Lakers in the first half with 18 points. James added 13 in the half.
Russell only scored two points in the second half on 1-of-5 shooting after a 7-of-9 effort in the first half that included 4-of-5 from 3. He was 0-for-3 on 3s in the second half.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Balance attack fuels Phoenix Suns past LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
