Leandro Barbosa scored 18 points in his fifth game back from wrist surgery to help the Phoenix Suns stretch their winning streak to a season-best six games with a 132-96 rout of the New York Knicks on Friday night.
The Suns have won 20 of 25 to climb within a half-game of No. 4 Utah and a game of No. 3 Dallas in the Western Conference. Phoenix remained 1 1/2 games behind Denver, the conference's No. 2 team. Amare Stoudemire scored 18 and Jason Richardson 17 for Phoenix, then sat out the final quarter. Al Harrington had 24 and David Lee 21 for New York.
Mike D'Antoni had a long night in his second trip as Knicks coach to Phoenix, where he had installed the high-speed style that is still the basis for the Suns offense under his former assistant coach Alvin Gentry. The blowout fell two points shy of Phoenix's most one-sided victory of the season.
Phoenix led by as many as 17 in the second quarter and 32 in the third against a New York team on the first stop of a five-game trip through the West. A 6-0 spurt put Phoenix ahead for good 26-19, a run that featured a thundering fast-break dunk by Stoudemire on a lob pass from Richardson.
The big lead gave Gentry a chance to stretch the minutes for Barbosa, who returned March 16 after missing 23 games. The speedy Brazilian, who made 7-of-12 shots, led a 13-3 run that put the Suns ahead 50-35 on his driving reverse layup with 7:56 left in the half. New York never got it to single digits again.
Grant Hill's 18-footer gave Phoenix its biggest lead of the half at 59-42 1:25 before the break. The Suns were up 64-48 at the break.
Goran Dragic had two assists and a layup in an 8-0 spurt and the Suns led 96-64 with 48 seconds left in the third quarter. Harrington and Bill Walker each made a 3-pointer to cut it to 96-70 entering the fourth quarter. The Suns backups made the most of their extra playing time. Dragic matched his career high with 10 assists. Channing Frye tied his season best with 11 rebounds.
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