Suns Win Without Their Best

The Phoenix Suns won without their best, as dominant teams find a way to do. Suddenly, the San Antonio Spurs are struggling to stay in that category. <br/><br/>The Spurs lost 100-96 to the Los Angeles

Thursday, January 18th 2007, 6:22 am

By: News On 6

The Phoenix Suns won without their best, as dominant teams find a way to do. Suddenly, the San Antonio Spurs are struggling to stay in that category.

The Spurs lost 100-96 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, falling to 5-5 in their last 10 games. Kobe Bryant scored 34 points for the Lakers.

San Antonio already has seven home losses, part of the reason the gap among the NBA's top teams is widening. The Spurs are already five games behind Southwest Division rival Dallas and four back of the Suns.

``We are not even able to win at home as regular as we used to,'' said Manu Ginobili, who had 16 points. ``We really got to step up.''

That's what the Suns did in Houston, where they trailed by 15 points midway through the second quarter. They eventually put it together to win 100-91 for their 11th straight victory.

Steve Nash had 21 points and 14 assists, Amare Stoudemire added 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Phoenix overcame 18 turnovers.

``We weren't here mentally for the first quarter and a half and we didn't play great after that,'' said Nash, who also had six turnovers. ``But we played good enough.''

In other games, it was: Toronto 101, Sacramento 85; Washington 99, New York 98; New Jersey 92, Charlotte 85; Utah 100, Detroit 99; Chicago 99, Milwaukee 90; Memphis 118, Philadelphia 102; Atlanta 105, Minnesota 88; Portland 94, Cleveland 76; and the Los Angeles Clippers 115, Golden State 109.

At Houston, the Suns improved to 29-3 in their last 32 games. They became the second team in franchise history to have two winning streaks of more than 10 games in one season. The 1992-93 Suns had winning streaks of 14 and 11 games on their way to the NBA finals.

Rafer Alston matched a career high with 29 points to lead the depleted Rockets. Tracy McGrady, a six-time All-Star, sat out with stiffness in his lower back as Houston lost its second straight.

Still, the Rockets are only two games behind the Spurs in the Southwest Division. Even after opening a tough Texas back-to-back with an impressive victory, the Lakers were quick to point out that they hadn't seen San Antonio at its best.

``San Antonio is a little hurt, they're playing a little down right now,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``We caught a team that didn't shoot the ball very well down the stretch. We're happy for the win, but we're not going to crown ourselves just yet.''

The Lakers visit Dallas on Thursday night.

Jazz 100, Pistons 99

Visiting Utah spoiled Chris Webber's debut and Chauncey Billups' comeback with Detroit.

Deron Williams scored a career-high 31 points, had 10 assists and made a 3-pointer with 44 seconds left as the Jazz improved to 4-0 against the Pistons the last two seasons.

The Pistons had a chance to win the game after a timeout with 5.1 seconds left, but Billups missed a shot just before the buzzer. He had 26 points after missing eight games with a calf injury.

Clippers 115, Warriors 109

At Los Angeles, Elton Brand had 27 points and 11 rebounds, and the Clippers barely held on to beat Golden State _ just hours after the Warriors swung an eight-player trade with the Indiana Pacers that left their bench considerably depleted.

Monta Ellis and rookie forward Kelenna Azubuike each scored 28 points for Golden State. It was an eventful day for the struggling Warriors, who obtained Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Sarunas Jasikevicius and Josh Powell from the Pacers in exchange for Troy Murphy, Ike Diogu, Keith McLeod and Mike Dunleavy Jr. _ the son of the Clippers' head coach.

Wizards 99, Knicks 98

At Washington, Caron Butler put home a one-handed slam with 2.2 seconds left to give the first-place Wizards their ninth straight home win and a half-game lead over Orlando in the Southeast Division.

Butler had 27 points and a career-high 10 assists. Gilbert Arenas was held to 16 points on 4-for-14 shooting.

Quentin Richardson scored a season-high 35 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Knicks, who had won four of five to move into contention in the weak Atlantic Division.

Trail Blazers 94, Cavaliers 76

Zach Randolph had 26 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Trail Blazers over the road-weary Cavaliers.

LeBron James scored 23 points for Cleveland, which is 2-3 on its seven-game road trip. The Cavaliers were coming off a 101-96 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday night.

Raptors 101, Kings 85

At Toronto, Morris Peterson scored 22 points and Chris Bosh added 20 as Toronto handed Sacramento its seventh straight loss _ its longest skid since closing the 1997-98 season with seven consecutive losses.

Nets 92, Bobcats 85

At Charlotte, N.C., Vince Carter scored 26 points and had two big baskets late in the fourth quarter as New Jersey hung on to beat Charlotte and move within two games of .500.

Hawks 105, Timberwolves

At Minneapolis, Joe Johnson had 29 points and eight assists to lead Atlanta to its third straight victory.

Josh Smith added 21 points and five rebounds for the Hawks, who have their longest winning streak since they won four in a row from Nov. 3-10.

Bulls 99, Bucks 90

At Milwaukee, Andres Nocioni scored 21 points, Ben Gordon added 20 and Luol Deng had 19 to lead Chicago to its third straight victory.

It was Gordon's seventh straight game with at least 20 points and helped give the Bulls a rare win in Milwaukee, where they had lost 15 of the previous 16 times. Milwaukee got a career-high 22 points from 19-year-old Ersan Ilyasova.

Grizzlies 118, 76ers 102

At Memphis, Tenn., Mike Miller scored 30 points and Rudy Gay added 23 to lead the Memphis snapped a three-game losing streak in a matchup of the NBA's two worst teams.

Kyle Korver scored 30 points for Philadelphia, which lost its third straight.