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NBA -- Suns burn Pelicans, keep 8th spot in the West
By Bernard Pagusara PhilBoxing.com Fri, 11 Apr 2014
NEW ORLEANS -- The Phoenix Suns held off a late rally by the New Orleans Pelicans to cling to a 94-88 win Wednesday night at the Smoothie King Center.
The close call improved the Suns to 47-31, keeping them in 8th place in the Western Conference, just a game ahead of the 46-32 Memphis Grizzlies who are knocking on the door at 9th place.
The Pelicans started slow as Suns' spitfire Goran Dragic orchestrated an 8-0 run. It took the Pelicans four minutes to score their first basket, Tyreke Evans lay-up at the 7:41 mark in the first quarter.
The Pels shot only 20.8 percent from the field for 14 first quarter points, one of their lowest opening quarter outputs of the season.
With Anthony Davis out of the game, rookie Jeff Whitey got the call from coach Monty Williams and took advantage of the opportunity by scoring a career-high 17 points alongside two rebounds and three assists.
The University of Kansas alum led a second quarter comeback with Anthony Morrow, as they opened the second canto with an 8-0 run, cutting their deficit to 23-22. Their big second quarter performance found the Pelicans down by a hair at halftime, 47-46.
The Pelicans continued their charge in the third quarter and took a 50-47 edge with 8:03 left in the period.
But the Suns took the rest of the quarter as Eric Bledsoe woke up from a first-half slump with 12 points that let the Suns retake the lead, 71-64.
Goran Dragic (20 pts.) and Gerald Green (21 pts.) combined for 41 of the Suns? 94 point output, while Bledsoe added 16 of his own. The Pelicans were led by Jeff Whitey with 17, while Darius Miller and Anthony Morrow added 14 apiece.
The Suns, who won the eight of the last 10 outings against the Pelicans, will face the Spurs in San Antonio next while the Pelicans will try their luck in Oklahoma.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Bernard Pagusara.
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