The Phoenix Suns hosted the Chicago Bulls on Friday night. Leading scorer for the Suns, Devin Booker landed 28 points with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Phoenix dominated the game with Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton despite not having Chris Paul and Jae Crowder. The crowd was wild on their feet for both teams. The stadium was at 95% capacity with almost half the fans in Bulls gear. The Bulls jumped out to a 7-4 lead with some ongoing momentum in the first three minutes. The Suns were able to break away to take the lead 13-12 with a three from Devin Booker at 7:32.
It was a back and forth first quarter with both teams fighting for the lead. Caruso assisted LaVine on a dunk putting them ahead once again 21-19. At the end of the first quarter, Booker made a mid range pull up jump shot to give the Suns a three point lead going into the second quarter 30-27.
Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams said, “I told the guys the way we compete every night is something that we don’t take for granted” (Arizona Sports).
The Suns started the second quarter without Devin Booker. Cameron Payne’s floater in the lane to spark an 8-2 run. The Bulls battled back with Coby White scoring seven of the team's next nine points to pull them within four. This didn’t break the Suns lead as Devin Booker checked back into the game. Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton were too much to handle to close out the half scoring a combined 13 out of the last 19 Suns points of the quarter. Overall giving them a commanding 61-48 halftime lead.
“I thought some of the (Suns’) offensive rebounds in the second quarter really hurt us, and then we started missing shots. We gotta develop a resilience when it’s not going well,” Chicago Bulls Coach Billy Donovan said. (NBA)
The Suns started right where they left off in the third quarter with Deandre Ayton scoring the first four points. Nikola Vucivic answered with a two-pointer of his own assisted by Zach LaVine who had a team high of nine assists.
The Suns had a twenty-six point lead before Coby White hit a three point shot with one minute left in the third quarter to cut the score to 95-72 in favor of the Suns.
DeMar DeRozan ended with a team high nineteen points for the Bulls scoring ten in the fourth quarter. However, it was too little too late for the Bulls with their third loss in a row. The Bulls lost to the Suns, 129-102 once again, after their loss in February 127-124.
Booker said, “That is a really good team over there and we played really well. We enjoy that matchup” (NBA).
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