Devin Booker scored 28 points, Deandre Ayton had 20 and the Phoenix Suns beat the Mavericks 110-80 on Tuesday to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Suns took advantage of a great third quarter to turn a tight game into a comfortable victory. Phoenix started the second half on an 11-4 run marked by two 3-pointers by Booker and made it 61-50.
Mavs coach Jason Kidd called a timeout, but he couldn’t stop the barrage. The Suns entered the fourth quarter 82-60 after 12 points from Booker in the third.
While the Suns finally found some continuity in the attack, the Mavs lost theirs completely and scored just four points in the first six minutes of the third. At times, Dallas’ attack was just watching as Luka Doncic tried and pulled off some magic, but he couldn’t do it all by himself.
The Mavs turned over 12 balls in the third quarter.
The Suns, the best team in the regular season, rebounded from losing the previous two games and could win the series in Game 6 on Thursday at Dallas.
Doncic finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Jalen Brunson had 21 points. The Mavs made just 38% of their shots from the field.
The Suns built a hard-fought 49-46 lead at halftime. Booker scored 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Doncic answered with 18 points, although he was a little less efficient with 7 of 16 baskets.
The Mavericks led for most of the first half before Booker’s shot tied it at 40 with 3:47 remaining. Mikal Bridges had a clever steal and then hit a layup to make it 44-42.