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Streaking Suns blast Rockets 91-78 Shawn Marion had 23 points and 18 rebounds and Joe Johnson added 19 points to lead the Phoenix Suns to their fifth straight win, 91-78 over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night.
Jim Jackson came off the bench to score 15 points to help keep the high-scoring Suns running smoothly on a night when All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire, struggled throughout, narrowly averting a season-low with just nine points.
The victory kept Phoenix ahead in the race for the league's best record (56-17) with nine games to play as they battle Miami and San Antonio for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Rockets, meanwhile, couldn't take advantage of a rare poor shooting night by Phoenix, shooting just 34 percent themselves and failing to get an unusually active Yao Ming more involved in the offense.
Yao was back in the lineup after missing Friday's loss to last-place New Orleans with a sore right calf. Wearing a protective black sleeve around his lower leg, Yao had 19 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks.
Tracy McGrady had only 13 points on 6-of-21 shooting and forward Ryan Bowen, in only his fifth start of the year, scored a season-high 14 points.
The Suns, who lead the league in scoring with 110.7 points a game, improbably went nearly seven minutes without scoring during a stretch from the late in the first quarter to midway through the second.
During that unusually ugly span, Phoenix missed 13 straight shots, two free throws and committed five turnovers. Of course, that's not necessarily a surprise considering it came against the league's fourth-best defense.
The Suns were held to a season-low 10 points in the second quarter, and tied another low with 41 points at the half. They trailed by a point at halftime.
But the plodding Rockets couldn't keep it up, and Marion scored five points during a third quarter-closing 7-0 spurt to give the Suns a 69-62 lead and put them firmly in control the rest of the way.
Because of foul trouble and uncharacteristic offensive struggles, Stoudemire failed to share much court time with Yao. Stoudemire, who averages 26 points a game, shot just 4-of-9 and grabbed 14 rebounds in his second game since missing two straight with an ankle injury.
Yao and Stoudemire have struck up something of a rivalry since both entering the league as lottery picks in the 2002 draft, Yao as the top pick and Stoudemire slipping to Phoenix at No. 9.
Stoudemire edged Yao for the Rookie of the Year award in 2002-03, and has rapidly developed into one of the game's premier big men despite being just three years removed from his high school days in Florida. Yao's development has taken a little more time despite getting All-Star nods each of the three years he's been in the league.
Yao got the best of their individual matchup again — much as he has recently — but Stoudemire got the win. Yao and the Rockets get another crack at Phoenix on Saturday. Rockets guard Jon Barry sat out the game because of back spasms. ... Suns reserve forward Bo Outlaw drew a technical late in the second quarter for yelling at officials for not calling what he thought was a foul on Marion. ... Jackson, who the Rockets sent to New Orleans on Dec. 17, played in Houston for the first time since the trade. ... The Rockets went with their 14th different starting lineup of the season. ... Phoenix G Steve Nash has reached double figures in assists in 14 consecutive games, the longest such streak since Mark Jackson did the same for Denver in 1996-97. ... The road team has won all three games in this season's series.
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