By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Phoenix Suns pulled off a wire-to-wire victory over the Dallas Mavericks, 114-102, to complete their 2024-2025 NBA regular season bounce back on October 27, 2024.
Phoenix had to be at their A-game to survive Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving’s 62-point combined output. In the final seven minutes of the game, Phoenix showed they were the more poised team.
With the Suns never trailing after the first 12 minutes of the ball game, Doncic’s personal scoring avalanche threatened Phoenix in the fourth but their timely buckets provided the much-needed answers that ballooned their lead back to double digits.
In the crucial seven-minute stretch in the fourth, Phoenix’s rookie Ryan Dunn and Kevin Durant made back-to-back three-pointers, extending their advantage to 12 points, 102-90.
The Suns made another completed defensive stop and started to blow the game wide-open with a foul-counted layup conversion from Durant.
After that wild sequence for the Suns, the Mavericks never cut their deficit to single digits and went cold when they needed to score the most.
Doncic already had 23 points in the first half and was bound for another monster game but the quick defensive help adjustment that Phoenix deployed in the second half slowed his scoring efficiency and forced him to generate most of his buckets in the free throw line.
After a hot-shooting against the San Antonio Spurs during their first NBA win, the Mavericks failed to pick up where they left off and only had a 39.8% offensive rating against the Suns.
On the other hand, the Suns made 14 three-pointers and outran Dallas in the fast break department, tallying 18 markers on the break compared to the Mavericks’ 4 made points on the breakaway.
Durant sustained his fine form and top-scored the Suns for the third straight game with a 31-point output built from an efficient 4/8 shooting from the rainbow country.
The veteran small forward also stuffed the stat sheets in the must-win game and amassed nine rebounds, two assists, a block, and a steal.
Jusuf Nurkic also balled out for Phoenix and capped off the night with a dominant double-double outing of 18 markers and 14 rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks had a 40-point explosion from Doncic and received 22 points from Irving but their bench mob only produced nine points, a sub-par average compared to their 24-point contribution against the Spurs.
