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Marion helps Suns to seventh straight win

Dec 6, 2006 - 4:44 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Shawn Marion was well ahead of his team and the Sacramento Kings - literally.

Marion made his first seven shots and scored 15 of his 23 points in the first quarter as the Phoenix Suns started quickly and sped to their seventh consecutive win, a 127-102 victory over the slumping Kings.

Leandro Barbosa scored 26 points, Amare Stoudemire added 17 and 13 rebounds and Steve Nash collected 11 and a league season-high 20 assists for the Suns, who shot a blistering 69 percent (18-of-26) in the first quarter.

Marion made 11-of-16 shots. One came just before the first-period buzzer, when he buried a one-handed turnaround jumper from the baseline for a 41-29 advantage.

While his teammates made their way to the bench, Marion headed to the locker room. Nash, who had nine assists in the first quarter, and others laughed along the sideline at their confused teammate.

"I had to use the bathroom, I am sticking to it," Marion said. "I really had to use the bathroom but I did think it was the end of the half. I realized it wasn't after I ran out."

"You all noticed that, huh?" Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "That was pretty good. He had enough stats for a half. He probably thought (since) he had 15 points it must be halftime but that was pretty funny."

Phoenix led, 62-51, at halftime and put the game out of reach with a 35-point third quarter, building a 20-point cushion heading into the final period.

"It was a great tempo for us," Nash said. "We got to the open floor a lot, got some easy buckets."

Mike Bibby had 21 points with seven assists and Kevin Martin scored 13 points for Sacramento, which has lost four in a row.

"Phenomenal game by Nash. for a player to take only eight field goals and to dominate a game with 20 assists is phenomenal," Kings coach Eric Musselman said. "It shows you what a great player he is. They have a great running ballclub. They came out of the gates with 41 points. A priority was to try to stop them in transition in the first quarter and obviously we didn't do that."