Phoenix continues hot play with blowout of Orlando

Stoudemire scored 10 points in the third quarter to lead Phoenix to victory for the 13th time in 14 games after a 1-5 start.

Shawn Marion scored 19 and grabbed 11 boards for Phoenix. Steve Nash scored 18 and tallied 15 assists, and Boris Diaw netted 13.

Trevor Ariza led the Magic with 19 points, and Grant Hill scored 14 for Orlando, which fell for the third time in four games. Carlos Arroyo scored 12 points and Darko Milicic and Keyon Dooling netted 10 points apiece.

In a matchup between the best team in the Eastern Conference and the hottest team in the West, Orlando came up very short.

Phoenix took a stranglehold on what had been a back-and-forth game on a 20-3 run over the first seven minutes of the third quarter. Jameer Nelson hit a reverse layup in the quarter’s first minute, but Orlando wouldn’t hit another field goal until a layup by Hill with just under four minutes left in the quarter, a 7:35 stretch in which the Suns lead swelled from three to 17, at 77-50. The Suns led by as many as 21 in the quarter, and took an 85-67 lead into the fourth.

Orlando never really threatened in the fourth quarter, trailing by double digits throughout the game’s final 12 minutes.

The Magic hit the ground running in this one, netting the game’s first eight points. The 8-0 lead was short-lived, though, as the Suns answered with an 8-2 run to cut to within one possession of Orlando. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the quarter, with Orlando taking a 26-25 edge into the second quarter.

Two Marion free throws at the end of the half sent the Suns into the break with a 55-53 lead.

Game Notes

The Suns are three games shy of tying the franchise-record 14-game winning streak, which the 1992-93 Suns racked up between the 1st and 30th of December 1992. Phoenix will have to win in Miami, at home against Golden State, and in Sacramento this week to tie the record, and at Toronto on Dec. 19 to break it...Ariza, Arroyo, and Milicic led an Orlando bench that outscored Phoenix’s, 52-13.