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Suns beat Kings despite Cousins' 41 points

Apr 4, 2012 - 5:49 AM Sacramento, CA (Sports Network) - Six Suns finished in double figures, including Marcin Gortat, who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds to lift Phoenix to a 109-100 victory over the Kings at Power Balance Pavilion on Tuesday.

Steve Nash scored 18 points and handed out 12 assists, Michael Redd added 16 points off the bench, and Jared Dudley and Channing Frye netted 15 points apiece for the Suns, who have won two straight.

The Suns are now 1 1/2 games behind the idle Houston Rockets for eighth in the West and pulled to within a half-game of the ninth-place Utah Jazz, who Phoenix will visit on Wednesday.

"It was a great win for us," Suns head coach Alvin Gentry said. "For us to play from start to finish like we did I thought was really good."

DeMarcus Cousins poured in a career-high 41 points to go with 12 rebounds and Isaiah Thomas scored 25 points and dished out seven assists, but the Kings fell for the second time in three games.

Leading 59-51 at halftime, Phoenix held the Kings at arms length for much of the third and led 77-68 with 3:33 left after a layup from Dudley, but the Kings closed the quarter on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to one, 79-78, heading into the final frame.

Redd hit a jumper early in the fourth to give Phoenix an 87-82 lead but Cousins brought the Kings back within one on a dunk off a feed from Tyreke Evans.

But the Suns answered with five straight to press the lead to six and, after two free throws from Cousins cut the difference to four, Nash buried a three and added a jumper before Frye put the Suns on top 101-90 with a jumper off the glass with 4:07 left in the game.

The lead dipped below 10 briefly down the stretch, but the Kings never truly threatened the rest of the way as the Suns held on for the road victory.

"I want our guys to understand that they need to play well," said Kings head coach Keith Smart about his team's role as spoiler for the remainder of the season. "We have to look at it like this is our playoffs. So when the opportunity comes to us in the future, we have learned from situations like this."

Phoenix led 29-18 after one and held a 17 point advantage in the second before a 12-0 run from the Kings helped send Sacramento into the locker trailing 59-51.

Game Notes

The Kings will begin a home-and-home with the Clippers on Thursday in Sacramento...Sacramento shot just 1-of-10 from three-point range, while the Suns managed to hit 5-of-22 from distance...Shannon Brown finished with 12 points and five rebounds for the Suns.