Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The Phoenix Suns shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road on Monday. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points while Collin Gillespie added 28 points — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory.
The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a night to forget for JJ Redick’s side, who fell to 15-5 and remain second in the Western Conference. Luka Doncic led the Lakers scoring with a game-high 38 points, with Austin Reaves adding 16 and Deandre Ayton 12. LeBron James also struggled, finishing with just 10 points from 3-of-10 shooting.
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Donovan Mitchell’s 43-point haul helped the Cleveland Cavaliers improve to 13-9 in the Eastern Conference with a 135-119 blowout of the Indiana Pacers. Cleveland took control after outscoring the Pacers 37-25 in the opening quarter, building a hefty lead that they held for the remainder of a one-sided game.
In Denver, Anthony Davis rattled in 32 points and hauled in 13 rebounds to help the Dallas Mavericks score an upset 131-121 win over Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. Serbian star Jokic bagged 29 points, 20 rebounds, and 13 assists, but Denver were unable to build on a dominant first quarter which saw them open up a 14-point lead. Instead, Dallas cut loose to outscore Denver 42-27 in the second quarter to take a one-point lead into half-time. A see-saw second half swung decisively in favour of Dallas when the Mavs outscored Denver 29-17 in the fourth quarter to seal a win that improves them to 7-15. Denver slipped to 14-6 for the season.
The Houston Rockets (13-5) also finished on the wrong end of an upset in Salt Lake City, losing 133-125 to the Utah Jazz (7-13). The Detroit Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after a battling 99-98 home win over the Atlanta Hawks. In a game that saw the lead change hands 27 times, Detroit held on for victory thanks to a flurry of late scoring by Cade Cunningham, who bagged eight of his 18-point tally in the fourth quarter.
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