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Gortat leads Phoenix in rout of Cleveland

Mar 25, 2012 - 10:55 PM Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Marcin Gortat scored the first 10 points of the game en route to a 22-point effort to lead the Phoenix Suns to a 108-83 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday.

"If I get involved in the first quarter, then I'm more productive throughout the entire game," remarked Gortat. "My teammates found me and gave me a couple good, open looks and they passed the ball well. The only thing I had to do was finish around the basket."

Rookie Markieff Morris poured in a career-high 22 points, Shannon Brown tallied 16 and Steve Nash handed out 13 assists as the Suns wrapped up their four-game road trip with two straight victories.

Kyrie Irving lead the way for Cleveland with 16 points and six rebounds, while Omri Casspi added 14 points off the bench. The Cavs continued to skid, as the loss marks their third straight and their sixth in their last seven overall.

"We can't play the rest of the season with peaks and valleys," said Irving after the loss. "At times we've shown a lot of heart and we've beaten really good teams by playing hard for 48 minutes. We just haven't been doing that in the last two games."

Phoenix tallied the first 12 of the first quarter, led by Gortat's 10, but Cleveland battled back in the latter stages, getting five straight from newly- acquired forward Luke Walton as the frame ended with the Suns holding a 29-21 advantage.

A 10-4 start to the second brought the home team within two, 33-31, but the Cavs would score just one field goal, an Alonzo Gee layup, over the next 8:10 to close out the first half.

The Suns reeled off a 26-7 run during the Cleveland drought, as Morris sparked the surge with nine straight, and Gortat added six points to give Phoenix a 59-38 lead heading into the locker room.

A brief 9-2 run brought the Cavs within 15, 72-55, with 5:06 left in the third, but the Suns scored eight straight capped by a Jared Dudley trey to restore their 20-point advantage.

The lead was 23 at the end of the third, and dipped below 20 just once in the fourth as Phoenix cruised to a double-digit road victory.

Game Notes

Cleveland will travel to Philadelphia on Tuesday, while Phoenix will welcome the Spurs on Tuesday...Phoenix outscored the Cavs 50-32 in the paint...Cleveland finished the game 4-of-16 from three-point range compared to 6-of-17 from long range for the Suns...Cleveland acquired Walton, along with Jason Kapono and a first-round pick, from the Lakers at the trade deadline for Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga.