Suns Strokes: Devin Booker heats up as Phoenix beats Miami

The first Phoenix Suns home game of the New Year produced an unexpected result: a win, and perhaps even more surprising, a win over the Miami Heat.

The former has now happened three times in the past 11 games, while the latter ended more than seven years of futility.

The final score, 99-90, came in front of 16,772 at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Devin Booker scored a game-high 27 points, while Marquese Chriss chipped in 18 and Eric Bledsoe added 17. Leandro Barbosa scored 10 off the bench.

For Chriss, his 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting set a new season-high.

Playing their second game in as many nights, the Suns (11-25) ended a two-game losing streak thanks to a strong second-half effort in which they outscored the Heat 27-14 in the third quarter and 43-38 overall.

Booker had 18 points in the second half.

Miami (10-26) dressed only eight players as they were without their second- , third-  and fourth-leading scorers — Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters and Tyler Johnson — plus a key reserve (Justise Winslow) due to injury or illness.

Goran Dragic tried to pick up the slack. He scored a team-high 24 but had only two points after halftime as the former Suns fan favorite was hurt by foul trouble and a bad back.

Dragic did not play in the Heat’s previous two games because of lower back spasms.

The Heat have lost six straight and eight straight on the road.

The Suns had not beaten the Heat since Nov. 3, 2009, losing 12 games in a row in the series.

THE GOOD

Limited to four and two points, respectively, the night before at the Los Angeles Clippers, Barbosa and Chriss scored eight and six points, respectively, in the first quarter to lead the Suns. In fact, it was a Barbosa 3-pointer, his second of the period, that triggered an 8-0 quarter-closing run to pull the Suns within one, 29-28. Barbosa made all three of his shot attempts, while Chriss went 2-of-4 with a pair of free throws.

Four straight points by the Suns to open the second quarter made it a 12-0 run to put the Suns in front, 32-29 at the 10:47 mark for the first time in the game. Later, they had a 9-0 run capped by a Booker free throw for a 46-42 advantage, their largest of the half at that point, at the 3:13 mark. Booker had seven points in the period, tying Bledsoe for team-high honors. Booker also had a team-best two assists.

Halftime didn’t slow down Booker. He added 10 more points in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer to cap a 10-3 run and 79-62 lead at the 1:59 mark. Booker shot 3-of-6 from the field and 3-of-3 from the foul line. Through three quarters, Booker had a team-high 19 points, his fourth straight game in double figures, plus two rebounds, four assists and a steal. Bledsoe and Chriss each had 16 points entering the fourth quarter.

Once again Tyson Chandler secured 20 rebounds (14 were defensive, helping the Suns win the battle of the boards, 49-43), his third 20-rebound game of the season. He is the first Suns player with at least three 20-rebound games in a season since Charles Barkley had five in 1993-94. With his eighth rebound, Chandler passed Horace Grant (9,443) on the NBA’s all-time rebounding list, thus moving into 44th place.

THE BAD

In a 2:08 stretch, Dragic scored 12 straight first-quarter points for the Heat. He began with a 13-foot pull-up jumper at the 6:29 mark and ended with a fast-break reverse layup which handed Miami its largest lead, nine points, 24-15 at the 4:21 mark. Dragic finished the period with a game-high 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including one 3-pointer and two free throws. He added three assists.

Nine shots is all the Heat missed in the first quarter. They missed that many and then some over a 5:30 stretch of the second quarter. The final brick count was 12, spanning eight straight possessions in which the Heat went from up five to down four. Miami finished the period missing 16 of their 25 shot attempts (36 percent) and went into the locker room 22-of-47 (46.8 percent) for the game.

Marring an otherwise solid effort, Chriss picked up a technical foul at the 3:01 mark of the third quarter. It was his sixth of the season, tying him with Booker for team-high honors and for the third-most in the league. The sixth technical foul is also a costly one as the fine for technical fouls 6-10 is $3,000 as compared to $2,000 for technical fouls 1-5. And for those wondering, technical fouls 11-15 trigger a $4,000 fine.

STAT(s) OF THE GAME

23-8: The Suns outscored the Heat by 15 in fast-break points, shooting 7-of-11 on such chances.

90: The Suns allowed 91 points or fewer for the third time in four games.

HE SAID IT

“We landed last night, probably around 2:30. By the time we got home, it was probably 3:15, by the time you fall asleep it’s 4 a.m. You come back and you play a game, usually it’s the first half, but for us it was the first six minutes, maybe eight minutes,” head coach Earl Watson said, referring to the sluggish start. “We knew, just stay with our defense, stay with it, keep synergy, stay together, and just don’t fracture. Eventually our will, our defensive efforts will continue to get us back into the game and change the game.”

NOTED

– Suns ended an eight-game home skid to the Heat, winning for the first time since Jan. 5, 2007.

– Suns have won three consecutive home games, something they last did from Nov. 12-16, 2015.

– Suns held the Heat to 14 third-quarter points, which was an opponent third-quarter season-low.

– Brandon Knight didn’t play, missing his first game of the season because of a right wrist sprain.

– Injuries sidelined Heat rotation players Waiters (thigh), Whiteside (eye) and Winslow (shoulder).

– Illness sidelined two more Heat players: James (food poisoning) and Tyler (migraine) Johnson.

UP NEXT

And just like that, the Suns are back on the road.

They travel to face Dirk Nowitzki, Harrison Barnes and Deron Williams of the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

This is the first of four meetings this season, including a game in Mexico City a week following this week’s contest.

The Suns lost all three matchups a season ago, and they have lost four straight overall in the series.

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