Spurs 107 - 100 Suns
Final
  for this game

Spurs and Suns set to skirmish in the desert

Mar 27, 2012 - 2:42 PM (Sports Network) - With just under a month to go in the NBA regular season, the bottom half of the Western Conference playoff picture is as jumbled as ever.

The Phoenix Suns got themselves back into the postseason conversation with a strong March thus far and will face another tough test on Tuesday when they entertain the Southwest Division-leading San Antonio Spurs.

The Suns just finished a four-game road trip by climbing above the .500 mark with a 108-83 win in Cleveland on Sunday. Marcin Gortat scored the first 10 points of the game en route to a 22-point effort to lead Phoenix in that one.

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.

"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."

Phoenix, which has the NBA's second best record since the All-Star break at 11-4, is currently 10th in the West but just 1 1/2 games behind a trio of teams, Utah, Houston and Denver.

San Antonio, meanwhile, keeps rolling along and are coming off a 93-76 rout of Philadelphia on Sunday. The Spurs are firmly entrenched as the No. 2 seed in the West, three games south of Oklahoma City.

With the Spurs playing their third game in as many nights, Tim Duncan received the night off, but DeJuan Blair picked up the slack, scoring 19 points and grabbing six rebounds to lead San Antonio to the victory.

Tony Parker scored a game-high 21 points to go with seven assists, while Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili tallied 11 points apiece to give the Spurs their fourth straight win.

"I think that they showed a lot of toughness and a lot of character to do that three nights in a row," said Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich about his team's performance in their back-to-back-to-back stretch. "They really pull for each other and all in all, they really stuck together all three nights."

San Antonio has taken four of its last five over Phoenix.






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