At Footprint Center on Friday night, conference rivals the Miami Heat (20-15) and the Phoenix Suns (19-16) were thrashed, 113-97.
Roughly one hour before tip-off, the Suns ruled out Nassir Little, Kevin Durant, and Eric Gordon. Last night, Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin were both declared out by Miami before tip-off.
Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the Miami Heat, started Kyle Lowry, Tyler Herro, Nikola Jovic, and Bam Adebayo.
With Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, Chimezie Metu, and Jusuf Nurkic as his starting five, Suns head coach Frank Vogel made his decision.
Grayson Allen of the Suns and Kyle Lowry of the Heat both got off to fast starts, making two early threes each.
With a 13-12 advantage, the Suns called their first timeout of the game at 6:47 of the first quarter, but the game remained close throughout.At the 4:29 mark, Devin Booker unleashed a thundering applause from Suns supporters with a pull-up jumper from more than 30 feet away. With that basket, the Suns took a 19–15 lead.
Throughout the rest of the quarter, Booker/Allen maintained their lead over the Suns. In the first quarter, the former scored ten points and the latter twelve.
Kevin Love, who came off the bench to lead Miami, was 5-for-5 from the field to lead all scorers in the first quarter.In the first quarter, the Suns extended their lead to 33-29.
Following a rally by the Heat to start the quarter, Allen knotted the game at 41 with two straight three-point shots.
At 7 minutes and twenty-five seconds into the half, Phoenix took a 43-41 lead thanks to a Yuta Watanabe put-back, which prompted a Heat timeout.
Taking a 62-55 lead into halftime, Phoenix completed the half on an 8-0 run.The third quarter saw Phoenix keep rolling thanks to Bradley Beal and Devin Booker’s tremendous playmaking. After three quarters, Phoenix had a 94–75 lead.
With a 105-88 lead going into their fourth timeout with 4 minutes and 54 seconds left in the game, Phoenix didn’t let their lead dwindle in the minutes that followed.
As Vogel was leaving the court, Grayson Allen tied the franchise record for most three-pointers in a game with just over two minutes remaining.