By Paul Levine Nov 10, 2009, 6:52 GMT
Los Angeles - The Phoenix Suns were running on empty, but Steve Nash filled up the tank to finish their gruelling road trip in a blaze.
Jason Richardson scored 29 points, Nash had 21 and a season-tying 20 assists, rallying the rising Suns past the Philadelphia 76ers, 119-115 on Monday night.
'I felt pretty energized in the fourth quarter when we made our run and pulled away,' said Nash, a two-time league MVP. 'It was a great trip for us and it's a great start to the season.'
Suns coach Alvin Gentry marvels over his 35-year-old Canadian floor leader.
'I don't know what to say about Steve,' he said. 'I love the fact that everybody thinks he's getting older and a step slower. We should all be so lucky as players to get older and be a step slower and still do what he does.'
Jared Dudley tallied 18 points off the bench, Amare Stoudemire added 17 for the Suns (7-1) who hit 15-of-30 three-pointers to finish 4-1 on their five games-in-seven days road trip.
'It feels great to be winning games the way we are,' Stoudemire said. 'We're playing extremely well; everybody is getting involved offensively and defensively. We just got it going right now.'
Coming off a victory at Washington on Sunday, the tired Suns trailed by a dozen at halftime before getting a second wind to outscore their hosts 65-49 after intermission.
'Anytime you play the last game on a road trip it's kind of hard to get up for,' Stoudemire explained. 'We started a little bit slow in the first half, but in the third quarter we got it going.'
Nash scored nine points to pull the Suns within 86-84 after three. Again, however, they fell behind 92-84 with seven minutes left before staging the decisive rally.
Knotted at 108-apiece, Richardson took a pass from Nash in transition and dunked over Andre Iguodala, resulting in a three-point play to put the Suns ahead for good with 2:14 remaining.
The two combined the next trip down court, as Nash zipped a cross-court pass from the left wing inside to Richardson for an easy layup, making it 113-108 with 1:38 to go.
After Rodney Carney's free throw brought the Sixers to within four, Nash sank all six free throws in the final 24 seconds to ice the Suns' third straight win.
Iguodala scored 24 points and Marreese Speights added 20 for the Sixers (3-4), losers of two in a row.
'We should have had it,' Iguodala said. 'We were up and couldn't hold it.'
Elsewhere: San Antonio Spurs 131, Toronto Raptors 124 Argentine ace Manu Ginobili had 36 points, including four of his six three-pointers in the final frame, eight assists and four blocked shots, as the Spurs overcame the absence of two of its all-stars to shoot down the visiting Raptors.
Richard Jefferson added 24 points and George Hill had 22 for San Antonio (3-3) which was missing Tim Duncan and Frenchman Tony Parker because of ankle injuries.
Chris Bosh had 32 points and 10 rebounds and Turkish star Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 for Toronto (3-4) which shot a sizzling (45-of-76) 59 percent from the field.
Golden State Warriors 146, Minnesota Timberwolves 105 Kelenna Azubuike scored 31, Anthony Randolph added 23 and Stephen Jackson dished out a career-best 15 assists, as the host Warriors set an NBA season-high point total, en route to their most lopsided victory in seven years.
Rookie Jonny Flynn had 20 points in Minnesota's (1-7) seventh consecutive loss.
Utah Jazz 95, New York Knicks 93 Turkish star Mehmet Okur had 18 points, 12 rebounds and the go ahead tip-in with 76 seconds remaining as the Jazz escaped the Knicks after blowing a 21-point second-half cushion.
Carlos Boozer had 23 points with 14 boards, Russian Andrei Kirilenko also scored 23, and Deron Williams dished out 16 assists for Utah (3-4) winners in New York for the first time since Feb. 20, 2004.
Rookie Toney Douglas scored a season-high 21 points, but missed a tough game-tying shot at the buzzer, sending the Knicks (1-7) to their fourth straight loss.
New Orleans Hornets 112, LA Clippers 84 Devin Brown scored 25 points, Chris Paul had 24 with 10 assists on a sore ankle, and the struggling Hornets (3-5) blew past the host Clippers for the 10th straight time.
Chris Kaman and Rasual Butler had 14 points apiece for the Clippers (3-4) whose three-game winning streak was snapped.
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