The tenth was at your fingertips but Chris Paul stole it. The New York Knicks’ nine-game winning streak, the culmination of their season of renewal, ended Monday in front of just under 2,000 spectators in Madison Square Garden. Very badly started (18-5, 5th), Phoenix knew how to round back before offering himself a victory (110-118) in the fifth and last game of his terrible road trip, which saw him face the top four in the Eastern Conference.
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Taking over from Devin Booker (33 points), Chris Paul made the decision in the final 70 seconds by scoring the Suns’ last seven points. Which “Wanted badly” this success, which owes a lot to the defense on Julius Randle (18 points at 6/17), said Booker the day after a loss to the other New York team, the Brooklyn Nets (128-119).
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The Suns are not done with their high-flying series, however, as their next two meetings will see them host the LA Clippers on Wednesday and the Jazz on Friday. Utah is only one step ahead of Phoenix at the head in the West after losing for the second time in three days to the penultimate of the conference, Minnesota (104-105), despite 18 points ahead in the first half (17-35, 13th). D’Angelo Russell scored the decisive field goal on a Utah defensive error that left “D-Lo” all to himself, Rudy Gobert making the wrong choice not to change on a screen.
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New York having fallen, Washington, which remained on eight victories, could have recovered the longest series of successes in progress, but the Wizards also lost at home, against San Antonio (143-146 AD), after a final failure of Bradley Beal (45 points) to snatch a second overtime. If Scott Brooks, the Washington coach, spoke of the “Elite attacks” of the two teams, Gregg Popovich was less tongue-in-cheek : “You can’t really say it was a masterclass on the art of defending. We couldn’t stop them, they couldn’t stop us either. “
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If there remains a long series alive in the NBA, it is therefore that of Oklahoma City, which conceded its 14th defeat in a row with its plucked workforce, this time in Philadelphia (121-90), against the Sixers who remained themselves on four consecutive losses. The French Théo Maledon (10 points at 4/8, 2 assists, 2 steals, 5 stray balls in 22 minutes) and Jaylen Hoard (3 points at 1/5, 4 rebounds in 16 minutes) could not do anything to prevent that this meeting turns into correction.
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