Tari Eason scored 25 points, Jalen Green added 22 and Dillon Brooks drilled a pair of late 3-pointers to help the host Houston Rockets claim a hard-earned 119-111 victory over the short-handed Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
Eason finished 11 of 16 from the floor and added nine rebounds while Green recorded five assists. Brooks tallied 18 points and made four 3-pointers, including back-to-back 3s down the stretch, the second with 1:08 left to extend the Houston lead to 115-106.
Amen Thompson posted his fourth career triple-double (18 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) and Alperen Sengun (17 points, 13 rebounds) added a double-double for the Rockets, who scored 28 points off 18 Phoenix turnovers and converted 17 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.
Kevin Durant was brilliant in defeat, pairing a game-high 37 points with a team-leading nine assists for the Suns, who were without Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Grayson Allen in the second game of a back-to-back. Bol Bol added 15 points for the Suns, who shot 51.7 percent from the field.
Houston erased a six-point halftime deficit early in the third but Durant responded with a transition dunk and a three-point play that put Phoenix back in front at 74-70. That was only the start of a scorching period for the Suns, who shot 15 of 20 in the third and closed the frame with a Collin Gillespie corner 3, a Gillespie pullup and a follow dunk by Nick Richards for a 92-84 lead entering the fourth.
Royce O’Neale sustained the Suns early, drilling his first three 3-pointers to spot Phoenix a 15-8 lead by the 8:13 mark of the opening period. Green supplied the Rockets their first lead at 25-24 with his three-point play five minutes later, but that’s when Durant initiated his takeover.
Durant drilled a jumper that helped the Suns reclaim the lead entering the second, and when the Rockets forged a 45-40 advantage after Cam Whitmore scored in transition with 7:37 left in the half, Durant re-entered the game and immediately led the Suns’ rally to the lead despite the Rockets’ best efforts to get the ball out of his hands with a second defender.
Phoenix closed the half with a 17-6 run punctuated by a Bol pullup jumper and a TyTy Washington transition 3-pointer. Durant recorded 16 points and five assists by the intermission, and his plus-13 was a significant factor in the Suns’ 57-51 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
