Jusuf Nurkic broke the Suns’ foundation record with 31 quick returns, the most in an NBA game in 14 years. He also had 14 centers – and five of Phoenix’s 21 turnovers. The Suns played without star watch Devin Booker after he sprained his lower leg in a fiasco to Houston on Saturday night.
Oklahoma City improved to 42-18 to take a half-game lead over Northwest Division rivals Denver and Minnesota in the Western Social gathering. The Thunder had won six straight before losing Thursday night at San Antonio, and this one nearly moved away.
“We had the choice to restore the starting to normal after a short time,” Thunder guide Carving Daigneault said. “Furthermore, sometime later that was a significant slide in the third and last quarter, they got into a score there. Once more yet, I thought we showed remarkable adaptability in the fourth to move into it after to such an extent.”
Nurkic crushed the Phoenix skip soul record of 27 set by Tyson Chandler against Atlanta in January 2016. Nurkic’s previous calling high was 23 for Portland against Sacramento in January 2019. The seven-footer had 22 this season against both the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn. After the game, Nurkic said he was discontent with the specialists paying little mind to his record.
“It is perfect, but we lost the game. Anyway, it’s kind of decimated when you have 13 adversarial returns and 16 shots then, at that point, zero free throws,” Nurkic said. “As hard as I work, and I feel like [I’m] getting fouled as [much as] anybody in the association.
Essentially, I’m not here saying – we lost the game, it is what it is – [but] it’s basically, it’s not unequivocally standard sense. Something like one [free throw]. [To] not even have one? In any case, I fathom it wraps up truly working. I ain’t the first, and I won’t be the last, either, unfortunately.”
Oklahoma City drove by 24 going before the Suns raged back to cut it to 86-83 late in the second last quarter. Eric Gordon’s three-pointer decisively in the last quarter made it 91-89, the Suns’ most vital lead beginning from the central quarter.
“We quit fouling,” Suns lead mentor Veritable Vogel said about what ended up being a 39-8 Phoenix run. “I was making a good endeavor to get Kevin expected rather than letting the game come to us.”
Regardless, the Thunder’s stars warded their offset and left off with the victory.
“I play the game utilitarian, reliably attempt to play the going with having a spot before me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “B-ball is a movement of runs, so it’s high fixations and put spots, you down got to attempt to turn what’s happening and you do that by expecting having a situation by possession. “I attempt to keep a comparable outlook no matter what’s going on.”