PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia had the best player on the planet right now, but Phoenix continues to show why it has the NBA’s best record.
The Suns capped a four-game road trip with a 114-109 win Tuesday night over the 76ers at Wells Fargo Center on the second of a back-to-back. Improving to 22-5 on the road, Phoenix (44-10) took the final three of the road trip that began with a loss at Atlanta.
Devin Booker led the Suns with 35 points, going 10-of-11 from the line, while Mikal Bridges scored 23 back in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Joel Embiid, the leading MVP candidate, paced the 76ers (32-22) with 34 points and 12 rebounds while Tobias Harris dropped 30.
Tied at 94-94 midway through the fourth, the Suns and Sixers returned to their starting units.
From that point, there were three lead changes and one tie.
The Suns took the lead for good on Chris Paul’s free throw that began a 9-3 run to take a 108-102 lead with 2:43 left. The Sixers got within three and looked to tie off a Paul turnover with 25.1 seconds left, but Embiid turned the ball right back over.
Paul finished with 16 points and 12 assists in a game-high 42 minutes. The 36-year-old hit a huge 3 after missing a free throw to put Phoenix up 103-99 as Jae Crowder forced a turnover on Tobias Harris.
The Suns won despite Crowder going 0-for-6 from the field, missing all five of his 3-point attempts and Cam Johnson making just 1-of-8 shots. He was 1-of-7 from 3.
Crowder did grab a game-high 14 rebounds as Phoenix outrebounded Philadelphia, 48-44.
The Suns trailed by one going into the fourth after surrendering a 10-0 Philadelphia run to open the second half that put them in a 14-point hole, 69-55, with 8:47 left in third.
Booker scored 10 points in the quarter as Phoenix went on a 28-13 run capped by an Elfrid Payton baseline bucket before Furkan Korkmaz put the Sixers back up one with 27 seconds left in the third.
Philadelphia led 59-55 at halftime as Embiid went for 19 points in the first half with Harris adding 17. Booker led the Suns with 15 while Bridges added 13.
Phoenix shot just 5-of-16 from 3 in the first half while the Sixers made 7-of-18.
The Suns return home to face Milwaukee Thursday in a rematch of last year’s NBA Finals the Bucks won in six games after going down 2-0 to Phoenix in the best-of-7 series.
Milwaukee (34-21) played Tuesday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers on its four-game road trip that ends against the Suns at Footprint Center in Phoenix.
The Suns will have a four-game homestand against the Bucks, Magic (12-43), who have the NBA’s worst record, Clippers (27-28) and Rockets (15-38), who have the worst record in the Western Conference , before the All-Star break.
The Suns are 1-1 against the Clippers, 2-0 versus the Rockets and have yet to play the Magic or Bucks.
Booker and Paul were selected as All-Star reserves while Monty Williams will coach Team LeBron because the Suns had the best record in the West at the Feb. 6 cutoff date.
The Suns will come out of the break with a road matchup against Oklahoma City (17-36). They’re 2-0 against the Thunder this season.
Phoenix follows that up with a four-game homestand against the Pelicans, Jazz, Blazers and Knicks. The Suns are 2-0 versus New Orleans and Utah, 2-1 against Portland and 1-0 versus New York.
So eight of Phoenix’s next nine games are at home. The Suns are 22-5 at Footprint Center. They’ve had 12 consecutive home sellout crowds of 17,071.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism