The Phoenix Suns came into the game with their season quickly sinking. Losers of six straight and sitting at 10th place in a tough Western Conference, they desperately needed a win. The Charlotte Hornets also came in struggling, losers of three straight and are trying to stay afloat in a weak Eastern Conference.
The Suns did not come out with any sense of urgency, trailing, 31-27, after the first quarter. Al Jefferson scored 18 first quarter points for Charlotte. Early second quarter, the Suns were looking at a 17-point deficit, trailing, 50-33. The Hornets looked to have this game without any real challenge from Phoenix.
From that point on, the Suns took off. They rolled out a lineup of Isaiah Thomas, Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe, Gerald Green, and P.J. Tucker. Yes, 6-foot-6 inch P.J. Tucker was playing center. They cut the lead to seven by halftime. Tucker held Jefferson to zero points in the second quarter.
The Suns cut the deficit to two in the early stages of the third period. Lazy defense and turnovers helped Charlotte up its lead to 11 points. Behind Kemba Walker's barrage of moves, the Hornets looked as if they were going to lock this game up. At that point, Markieff Morris picked up a questionable technical for yelling "And-1" to the ref, and mere minutes later he was thrown out of the ball game. He kept jawing at the ref until he was ejected. A fired up Suns squad cut the deficit to four points heading to the fourth quarter. Lance Stephenson got hurt on a drive on what looked like a groin injury. He had to be carried off and watched the rest of the game from the bench. Charlotte led, 87-83, with one period left.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair between two desperate teams. Trading bucket after bucket, the Hornets maintained a lead throughout the quarter. The Suns had chances, stopping the Hornets on five consecutive possessions but failing to score on five straight possessions themselves. Isaiah Thomas, a 90 percent costless throw shooter, missed three clutch costless throws this quarter which looked costly at the time. Some stingy defense by Phoenix and all of a sudden, they had the lead, 105-104, with just over 90 seconds left to play. Another stop for Phoenix and a clutch pull up jump shot by Thomas put the Suns ahead by three. Big Al then came back and scored a bucket to cut the lead to one. Charlotte got the ball back with a chance for the win, but Kemba missed a jumper, and the Suns never looked back.
The Phoenix Suns came out victorious, 111-106. Charlotte gave up a 17-point lead at home and extended its losing streak to four games. The six-game losing streak is over for Phoenix. They now improve to 13-14 on the season, while Charlotte falls to a dissapointing 6-19. The Phoenix Suns rolled through a majority of this game with a three point guard lineup. Thomas led the Suns with 23 points off the bench, Dragić finished with 20 points and eight assists, and Bledsoe with 15. Al Jefferson led Charlotte with 28 while Kemba tacked on 27 of his own.