LOS ANGELES, United States —
Devin Booker scored a team-high 38 points as the
Phoenix Suns won for the
13th time in the last 14 games with a 127–124 victory over the Chicago Bulls on
Monday.
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Booker shot 14-of-23 from
the floor and Chris Paul finished with 19 points and 11 assists, while
Jae Crowder had 10 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out six assists for the
NBA-best Suns.
"We play together as a
team and get it done every night," said Booker. "We have been through
it. We had a deep playoff run last year and we keep getting better."
Booker has now scored 30
plus points in five of the last eight games for Phoenix, who led by as many as
27 points in front of a crowd of 20,600 at the United Center arena.
"Just playing within
the offense," Booker said. "I understand that's how our team is
built, there are gonna be opportunities to score at all times. I've been in
this system for a minute now. There's no reason to force anything. We have too
many talented players out there."
Phoenix shot 54.4 percent
compared with 47.8 shooting by Chicago, who lost for the second time in as many
days while permitting 115-plus points for the seventh straight game.
JaVale McGee (16 points),
Mikal Bridges (15) and Deandre Ayton (13) also scored in double figures for the
Suns.
DeMar DeRozan paced the
Bulls attack with 38 points, while
Zach LaVine returned from a back injury to
tally 32 points for the Eastern Conference's third-ranked team, who have lost
three of their last four.
DeRozan converted a
three-point play to cut the Suns' advantage to nine points with just under six
minutes remaining. But the Suns answered with five points in the next 40
seconds to regain control as the Bulls' made a late run but fell short.
"The most important
thing down the stretch was getting stops on defense," said Booker.
Phoenix has now won four
straight games over the Bulls, including two wins last season.
Elsewhere, Klay
Thompson scored 21 points for the
Golden State Warriors, who won
their ninth consecutive game by beating the Oklahoma City
Thunder 110-98.
Warriors on a
roll
Stephen Curry added 18
points, 10 assists and nine rebounds for the Warriors, who shot 50 percent from
the field.
Lu Dort scored 26 points
and Darius Bazley equaled a season high with 20 for Oklahoma
City. Josh Giddey added 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
Thompson nailed two
three-pointers late in the fourth quarter to thwart a Thunder rally and give
Golden State a commanding nine-point lead.
Also,
Pascal Siakam and Gary
Trent each scored 24 points as the Toronto Raptors defeated the Charlotte
Hornets 116–101.
"I am just trying to
calm everybody down when it gets crazy out there. Kudos to the team for staying
with it," Siakam said.
In Salt Lake City, Donovan
Mitchell scored 32 points and the Utah Jazz erased a large second-half deficit
to defeat the New York Knicks 113–104.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 20
points, Mike Conley added 18 points and seven assists and Jordan Clarkson
returned from missing two games due to a knee injury to score 16 points for the
Jazz.
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