• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Stoudemire leads as Suns down Clippers

Jan 3, 2009 - 5:58 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points and Shaquille O'Neal added 17 to lead the Phoenix Suns to a 106-98 victory over the lowly Los Angeles Clippers on Friday.

Jason Richardson added 15 points and Steve Nash chipped in nine and 11 assists for the Suns, who shot 55 percent (41-of-74) from the floor and 7-of-12 from 3-point range en route to their third straight win.

Stoudemire scored eight points in the decisive first quarter as Phoenix jumped out to a 33-15 lead after 12 minutes and held the on until the end.

"Happy about the win but disappointed about the way we closed that game out," Suns coach Terry Porter said. "We started great in the first quarter but lost the last three quarters.

"We thought they were going to fold their tents after that and we just didn't play smart in different stretches. At times, we lost our focus."

The Suns have won eight of their last 11 games and have topped the century mark in scoring 10 times during that span.

"We didn't leave with a great taste in our mouth but we got the win and a little streak started, so it is not so bad," Nash said. "We took our foot of the gas. Maybe, it was too easy early, and you have to fight human nature in those circumstances."

Marcus Camby collected 19 points and 23 rebounds for the Clippers, who have lost six straight.

"He just gives tremendous effort all the time, both defensively and offensively he chips in," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "He gets his points and he does a lot of things that don't show up in our stat sheet."

Rookie Eric Gordon added 21 points for Los Angeles, which was trying to make up for the production of top scorer Baron Davis, who was out with a bruised tailbone.

"We were definitely undermanned coming in," Camby said. "We didn't have Baron, Zach (Randolph) or (Chris) Kaman. I thought the guys we had in there played hard. We got off to a bad start but after the first quarter. We won every quarter the rest of the ballgame."

With Davis - who is also averaging 8.0 assists - on the shelf, the Clippers recorded only 14 assists in the contest.

Cruising into halftime with a 62-49 advantage after Nash's 3-pointer at the second quarter buzzer, Stoudemire and O'Neal combined to score Phoenix's first 13 points of the third quarter.

"Those are the worst type teams to play, the ones that aren't doing well," O'Neal said. "We came out like we were suppose to but we kind of played down to the level of our opponent.

"It's hard, it really is. I always stuck with the method you should beat the teams you're suppose to beat, play well at home and stay above .500 on the road, but it is really hard getting up for a team like this."

The Suns pushed the lead to as much as 101-80 on Leandro Barbosa's layup with 6:30 left in the game and hung on for the win.