It was a tale of two halves as the Suns were down big in the first half, but showed their resilience and battled back against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night.
The Suns struggled scoring early and were down by 15 at halftime and as many as 19 early in the third quarter.
“Basically, we thought they were coming off a back-to-back and they had more energy than us in the first half,” Mike James said. “You can get beat by a team any day, but we didn’t want to be the team with less energy, so we just tried to pick it up.”
That’s Suns energy then jumped to a whole new level as James, TJ Warren and Marquese Chriss helped lead a 17-4 run and bring the Suns within just two. The Suns would finish scoring 32 points in the third quarter after only scoring 39 in the whole first half.
“I think we just had to play with some heart,” Chriss said. “They were embarrassing us a little bit, especially with them coming off the back-to-back resting players. I think that’s a slap in the face sometimes, so you just try to take it personal. They were basically just trying to outwork us and that was what happened in the first half, and in the second half I think we worked a little harder.”
The Spurs went up by as much as 10 in the fourth quarter, but once again, the Suns weren’t going to back down quite yet. A 14-4 run topped off by a Warren three-pointer tied the game up and the crowd at Talking Stick Resort Arena were on their feet.
“It was good to hear the crowd going crazy for us when we were doing good, especially when we get steals, playing good defense and things like that,” Chriss said. “I just think it helps us build a lot of energy on the offensive end.”
With just over one minute left to play, a forced turnover by James lead to a Chriss fast break dunk and the Suns had their first lead of the game at 100-99.
Unfortunately for the Suns, Bryn Forbes would hit a go-ahead three-pointer for the Spurs with just 20 seconds left on the clock. Even though they outscored the Spurs in the both the third and fourth quarter, it would not be enough as the Suns fell 104-101.
James (25) and Warren (24) combined to score almost half the teams points with 49 of the 101.
The Suns hit the road to Sacramento to face the Kings on Tuesday. Catch the action of Fox Sports Arizona.