Suns Beat Wizards for 14th Straight Win

Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns keep winning _ even when they face a first-place team on the road. <br/><br/>The only NBA club with a better record is the Dallas Mavericks, who are compiling an impressive

Wednesday, January 24th 2007, 6:05 am

By: News On 6

Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns keep winning _ even when they face a first-place team on the road.

The only NBA club with a better record is the Dallas Mavericks, who are compiling an impressive streak themselves.

Phoenix made Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards look more like pretenders than contenders, putting the East's top-scoring team in its place with a 127-105 thumping Tuesday night.

Nash scored 27 points on 11-for-13 shooting and added 14 assists in the Suns' 14th straight win, clearly outplaying fellow MVP candidate Arenas. Phoenix (33-8) led by 21 after the first quarter, won for the 30th time in 32 games and avenged an overtime loss to the Southeast Division-leading Wizards last month in Phoenix, where Arenas scored 54 and was yelling ``Hibachi'' when making his shots.

``I think respect, more than revenge,'' Nash said. ``We know they're a good team, and we didn't want to underestimate them or have a lack of energy to start the game. That was, I think, our motivation. We respected how well they played at our place and we wanted to give them a better game.''

The Mavericks (35-8) got a big game from Dirk Nowitzki, who had 33 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in a 111-95 victory at Orlando. Josh Howard added 25 points for Dallas, which has won eight in a row and 21 of 22 as it tries to reach the NBA finals again.

The defending Western Conference champions also stayed ahead of their pace last season, when they won a franchise-record 60 games.

``We're about as hungry as it gets,'' Nowitzki said. ``We were so close last year. It was a very, very disappointing loss at the end. But more than anything it's motivation for us to work even harder this year.''

Elsewhere, it was: Denver 117, Seattle 112; Philadelphia 102, New Orleans 96; Chicago 94, Atlanta 86; and the Los Angeles Clippers 115, Milwaukee 96.

In other news, the Minnesota Timberwolves fired coach Dwane Casey and replaced him on an interim basis with assistant Randy Wittman.

For the second consecutive game, after beating Miami in a rematch of last year's finals, the Mavericks led from beginning to end. Dallas was up 16 after the first quarter and pushed the margin to 25 in the second with a 15-5 run capped by Nowitzki's three-point play.

The Mavericks kept it around 20 points most of the second and third periods.

``We saw a pretty good team,'' Magic coach Brian Hill said. ``They ran by us early in the game, shot over us, went around us to start the game and we tried to play catch-up from that point on. It was too hard to do with a team of this caliber.''

At Washington, Arenas finished with 31 points _ but he started 1-for-6 and the game was essentially over before he got going. When he finally made his second field goal, it only served to cut the Suns' lead to 24 in the second quarter.

The Wizards trimmed the lead to 13 midway through the fourth, but Phoenix responded with a 6-0 run to put the game out of reach.

``I did hear that they wanted to be the Phoenix Suns of the East,'' said Amare Stoudemire, who had 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting. ``I think there's only one Phoenix Suns, and we rest in the West. And that's how it's going to be for a while.''

Shawn Marion finished with 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting and Raja Bell also had 21 points for the Suns, who opened a five-game road trip.

Caron Butler scored 24 points for the Wizards, who had won a Verizon Center-record 10 straight at home to move atop the Eastern Conference standings.

``It was a big game,'' Washington forward Antawn Jamison said with a big sigh. ``It lets you know we've still got a long way to go before we can truly become contenders. We definitely knew that, but it's a disgrace to come in and play like this on our home floor.''

The Suns shot a season-high 60.8 percent, had assists on 35 of their 48 field goals and had five players in double figures before halftime. Nash was 7-for-7 from the field and had eight assists in the first half.

``We'd rather play teams like that than sit down and play boring, slowdown basketball,'' Arenas said. ``And tonight we got a chance to go up and down and let the horses go, and they beat us at their game.''

Nuggets 117, SuperSonics 112

At Seattle, Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points in his second game back from suspension, Allen Iverson added 21 and Denver got two crucial 3-pointers from previously quiet Steve Blake. The Nuggets won their fifth consecutive game, and second in two nights with their two superstars together at last.

Ray Allen scored 44 points _ 22 in a frantic final period _ and Chris Wilcox added 25 for Seattle. But Allen's missed 3-pointer in the last 20 seconds denied the Sonics their final chance at what would have been a season-best four-game winning streak. Allen was 6-for-17 from 3-point range, 5-for-8 in the fourth quarter.

Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer, reached 30 points for the fourth time in five games spanning his just-completed 15-game suspension for fighting during a December brawl in New York. Iverson surpassed 20,000 points for his career, becoming the 30th player to reach the milestone.

76ers 102, Hornets 96

At Philadelphia, Kyle Korver scored 25 points, Andre Iguodala added 20 and the Sixers opened the second half of their season with a victory after going 11-30 over the first 41 games. Andre Miller had 17 points and 11 assists.

Bulls 94, Hawks 86

At Chicago, Luol Deng scored 18 points and Kirk Hinrich added 12 points and 12 assists for the Bulls, who have won nine straight over Atlanta. P.J. Brown scored a season-high 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

Joe Johnson had 29 points for the Hawks, who have lost three straight after winning three in a row.

Clippers 115, Bucks 96

At Los Angeles, Elton Brand had 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists against the injury-depleted Bucks. Brand scored 23 in the first half to help the Clippers win their third in a row. They handed Milwaukee its fourth consecutive loss and ninth in 11 games.