Suns Defeat Thunder Behind Strong Fourth Quarter
The Phoenix Suns used a strong fourth quarter surge to pull away from the Oklahoma City Thunder, 115-97.
The only typical Thunder starter remaining in the lineup was Lu Dort, who struggled to shoot the ball Wednesday night making just three of his 18 attempts.
The first quarter got off to a slow start for the Thunder, but an even faster start for the Suns. The Suns outscored OKC 33-23, the most points Phoenix would score in a quarter in the game.
From there the Thunder settled in and the offense found its legs, to an extent. The limited roster for OKC was able to stick around the first half with just an eight point deficit at 60-52.
In the second half, the Thunder started the third quarter the same way they ended the first half. The third quarter also saw the Thunder outscore the Suns, 29-25, continuing to stick around and limit the damage of the Suns lineup.
In the fourth quarter, the Suns took advantage of the weakened Thunder lineup. The Thunder offense slowed scoring just 16 points to the Suns 30 to hand the Suns win.
For OKC, Ty Jerome took control of the game scoring 24 points, setting a new career high, second to only Devin Booker who scored 38.
Aaron Wiggins continued a strong stretch notching 22 points in 39 minutes. The rookie, selected in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft, is averaging 20.0 minutes in the last three games. He has started in all three contests.
In the end, Bookers performance and the missing of key starters were too much to overcome for the struggling Thunder.
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