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Balanced 76ers scorch Suns

Feb 10, 2009 - 5:03 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Thaddeus Young, Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights each scored over 20 points to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 108-91 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Monday.

Young scored 14 of his 25 points in the first quarter as Philadelphia opened up a 30-25 lead. Speights had a big second quarter, scoring 12 straight points for the 76ers just before the break as they opened up a 55-44 lead at the half.

A rookie out of Florida, Speights finished with a season-high 24 points off the bench.

"They just gave me the ball so I had to make the best of it," Speights said. "They were throwing lobs and I was catching it. I was simply working hard. This is giving me confidence from my teammates and my coaches. I just keep working had and good things happen."

Iguodala scored 22 points for the 76ers, who improved to 4-2 on their season-high seven-game home stretch. With the win, Philadelphia (26-24) also moved two games over .500 for the first time this season.

Amare Stoudemire scored 19 points for Phoenix, which is 1-1 on its three-game trip against Eastern Conference opponents. The Suns were coming off a 107-97 victory over Detroit on Sunday.

"We're trying to build some momentum," Philadelphia coach Tony DiLeo said. "We knew that they played last night, so we wanted to come out and run and hopefully wear them down and I think that we did a good job of that. We had three players score 20 points and we are of course happy with the win."

Speights had 16 at the half, just a point short of his season-high. Philadelphia led, 80-66, entering the fourth and then Speights helped finish off the Suns.

He made a layup and then added a jumper from 16 feet to make it 84-71 with just under 10 minutes to play.

"We want to establish ourselves at home. This is our house and we want to protect it," Young said. "We've been doing a very good job of going out there getting wins and finishing out games. Tonight, we put the hammer on the nail."

Lou Williams added 11 points off the bench for Philadelphia, which has won three straight. He hit a 3-pointer in the fourth to make it 93-75 and garbage time soon followed with reserves playing nearly half the final quarter.

"Our team is so unselfish," DiLeo said. "Marreese Speights was hot tonight, the other night it was Willie Green If somebody get it going, we try to get them some more plays for them to get shots. Thad (Young) and Marreese tonight were really going pretty good and we tried to get them opportunities."

Jason Richardson had 16 points and Shaquille O'Neal had seven and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Suns, who had to try and get by on an off night for Steve Nash.

Nash had eight assists and three turnovers and scored only two points on 1-of-8 shooting. Grant Hill only had six points giving the Suns only 15 points from a trio of starters - Hill, Nash and O'Neal.

"I think that our energy tonight is what got us down," Stoudemire said. "For the most part we played decent. Sometimes it's just tough getting those wins on a back-to-back."