Devin Booker has scored 32 points and made six three-pointers, as Phoenix officially eliminated Los Angeles Lakers from NBA playoff contention with a 121-110 victory that provided the Suns with a franchise-record 63rd victory.
Superstar LeBron James sat out with an ankle injury for the fifth time in seven games, as Los Angeles (31-48) lost their seventh straight game. The result stomped out the Lakers' final hope of making the 7th-10th play-in tournament, after San Antonio Spurs defeated Denver Nuggets earlier in the night.
Centre Deandre Ayton added 22 points and 13 rebounds, and Chris Paul recorded 12 assists, as the NBA-best Suns (63-16) snapped a two-game slide. Phoenix surpassed the 62 wins put together by the 1992/93 and 2004/05 teams.
In 1992/93, Charles Barkley took the Suns to the NBA finals, where they lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. In 2004/05, they lost to San Antonio in the Western Conference finals, with point guard Steve Nash named Most Valuable Player.
Russell Westbrook scored 28 points, and Anthony Davis registered 21 points and 13 rebounds for Los Angeles, which dropped to 11-28 on the road. Phoenix are an NBA-best 32-8 at home.
The Suns led 63-58 at halftime before dominating the first 9m 23s of the third quarter. Forward Jae Crowder and Booker drained three-pointers during a 12-0 burst to give Phoenix an 84-65 lead.
The advantage reached 20, when Booker connected on another trey to make it 87-67 with 5m 30s left in the period. Booker hit his third three-pointer in a span of 89 seconds to increase the lead to 90-68 with 4m 46s remaining.
The Suns led by 25 midway through the final stanza, before Los Angeles scored 12 in a row to cut into the margin.
After trading with Washington Wizards for Westbrook, LA Lakers were heavily favoured to win the Western Conference and face Brooklyn Nets for the NBA championship, but their star-studded roster struggled for chemistry throughout the season and was plagued by injuries to Davis, who missed 39 games with knee and foot injuries, and James, 37, who sat 22 with a variety of ailments.
"Our goal was to win a championship," said Davis. "Feel like we had the pieces, but injuries got in the way of that and that was the difference in the season.
"I think even though we lost games where all of us was on the floor - me, Bron, Russ - I think we're three great players, but we would have figured it out, if we logged more minutes together.
"We weren't able to do that, which makes it tough to be able to compete for a championship, when your three best players haven't logged enough minutes together."
Reuters/Newshub
