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Nash hits milestone while helping Suns end skid vs. Rockets

Nov 23, 2010 - 6:51 AM Houston, TX (Sports Network) - Steve Nash scored 24 points and became the 16th active NBA player to reach 15,000 points, as the Phoenix Suns held off the Houston Rockets, 123-116, at the Toyota Center.

Nash also dished out nine assists for the Suns, who snapped a three-game skid. Jason Richardson added 26 points for Phoenix, which got 17 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists from Grant Hill.

"Wins are hard to come by. Any win on the road is a great win," Suns head coach Alvin Gentry said. "Our offensive rebounding and second chance points have been our downfall. We're happy with the win and we will build from it. Our offense won the game for us. We need to get our defense to make the necessary stops for us to win down the stretch."

Kevin Martin finished with 19 points for the Rockets, who have dropped four straight. Courtney Lee and Luis Scola each chipped in with 16 points. Scola also grabbed nine rebounds.

The Suns held a 26-25 edge after 12 minutes of action, and used a late sure in the second quarter to create some distance.

With the score tied at 39-39, Phoenix went on a 20-4 run. Richardson tallied eight points during the burst, including a three-pointer with 31.5 seconds left to make it a 59-43 game.

It was a 90-76 contest after each team put 31 points on the board in the third.

Trailing by 12, 93-81, Houston put together a 17-9 run to make things interesting. Brad Miller capped the surge with a jumper to cut the gap to 102-98 with 4:50 to play.

Martin's three-pointer with 2:57 to go cut the deficit to three, 106-103. The Suns fired right back with seven straight points to take a 113-103 lead on Nash's jumper with 1:33 left.

Phoenix went 8-of-8 from the foul line down the stretch to seal the victory.

"We can never get enough stops to sustain anything," Rockets head coach Rick Adelman said. "Offensively we did a lot of nice things and parts of the game defensively. They (Suns) are a hard team to cover. We try to take away their three-point shooting because they're so deadly. (Steve) Nash is tough. He kind of carves you up but our guys played hard. We just have to stay with it."

Game Notes

The Suns won all four meetings with Houston a year ago and are unbeaten in the previous six contests in this series. Phoenix has won 10 of 13 and 13 of its last 19 trips to Houston...The Suns ended a four-game road trip on Monday and went 1-3...Phoenix made 53.8 percent of its shots, while the Rockets shot 49 percent from the field...The Suns made 32-of-38 foul shots, while Houston went 12-of-15 from the charity stripe.