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    • Durant, Booker, Beal give Davis and Lakers their first defeat
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    Durant, Booker, Beal give Davis and Lakers their first defeat

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

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    The Phoenix Suns (3:1) beat the Los Angeles Lakers (3:1) 109:105 at home on Monday after a tight fourth quarter. The teams split their two meetings at the start of the season.

    Phoenix’s Big 3 of Devin Booker (game-high 33 points), Kevin Durant (30) and Bradley Beal (15) fueled them in the second half, which saw six ties and nine lead changes in the fourth period.

    Los Angeles’ Anthony Davis finished the game with a team-high 29 points and 15 rebounds, Rui Hachimura had 20 and 10, Austin Reaves added 23 and eight and LeBron James was held to 11 points but tied with D’Angelo Russell (14). points). high eight assists.

    Phoenix struggled on defense early in the game and trailed by 18 points in the first quarter. After trailing by seven early in the fourth, the Sun went on a 14-3 run to take the lead, and the back-and-forth continued until Phoenix pulled away in the closing seconds.

    The Suns return to LA to take on the Clippers in their next game on Thursday at 7 p.m

    The Suns are behind the Lakers after a close third quarter

    Phoenix trails LA 83-76 at the end of the third period.

    Booker led the Suns with 24 points and Kevin Durant had 22. The Lakers’ Anthony Davis still has a game-high 25, Rui Hachimura has the Lakers’ second-most points with 18 points and LeBron James has just seven assists with a game-high seven points.

    Before Lakers guard Gabe Vincent scored his only basket of the game on a corner 3 with eight seconds left and Devin Booker scored the buzzer-beating goal on the Suns’ ensuing possession, the largest lead for either team was six. After Durant made it 3-0 with his second goal to give the Suns a 66-62 lead, the Lakers went on an 8-0 run and took the lead back after five minutes with Rui Hachimura’s third three-pointer.

    Booker leads the Suns’ second-quarter recovery

    Devin Booker scored 14 of his 18 points in the second quarter to lead Phoenix to a 50-48 lead over LA at the break. That was the Suns’ first lead since 4-3.

    Two of the Suns’ other Big 3, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, have 12 and seven points, respectively.

    Phoenix continued its late first quarter success and began the second with a 9-2 run that cut LA’s lead to two on Booker’s first three-pointer at 9:21. The Suns outscored the Lakers 25-14 in the second and ended the half with a 16-6 run. The Suns caused the Lakers to commit five of their seven total turnovers in the second round and took a twelve-point lead. Phoenix lost eight turnovers and scored eight points from them.

    Lakers star LeBron James had just three points at halftime and struggled, hitting just 1 of 6. Anthony Davis led all scorers with 20.

    Suns’ Durant counters Lakers’ Davis dominance in first quarter

    Kevin Durant scored 12 points (5 of 8 shooting) for Phoenix in the opening period, but they trailed 34-25 early in the second, largely because of Los Angeles’ Anthony Davis.

    The Suns had no answer for the Lakers’ All-Star center, who had 16 points (7 of 11), four rebounds and two blocks. After the Lakers took an early 5-4 lead after about nine minutes, they extended their lead to 21-6 and extended their largest lead to 18 points. The Suns’ Jusuf Nurkic (two points) had trouble defending against Davis’ rim attack.

    But Durant scored 10 points in the final five minutes of the quarter to extend the lead to nine.

    Starting lineups

    The Suns will start point guard Tyus Jones, Devin Booker at two, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Jusuf Nurkic at center.

    The Lakers open with D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James at the three, power forward Rui Hachimura and center Anthony Davis.

    Beal will play, Allen will make his debut against the Lakers

    Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said during his pregame media release that Bradley Beal (elbow) has been upgraded from questionable to available.

    Budenholzer also said that their sixth man, Grayson Allen, will not be on a minutes restriction in his debut against the Lakers. Allen played only in the Suns’ first preseason win against the Lakers on Oct. 6, then missed Phoenix’s next four and first three regular-season games due to Achilles tendon soreness and personal reasons. Allen was the NBA’s best 3-point shooter last season (46.1%).

    Beal against Lakers questionable

    According to Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic, Bradley Beal is listed as questionable for Monday night’s return game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Footprint Center due to right elbow soreness. The three-time All-Star attended the shootaround at the team’s practice facility Monday morning after missing Saturday’s home opener against the Dallas Mavericks.

    Grayson Allen was also present at Monday’s shooting and is not listed in the report, having previously been listed as absent for personal reasons.

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    Madoc Meredith
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