{"id":373194,"date":"2025-12-28T03:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373194\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T03:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:33:09","slug":"booker-leads-suns-past-pelicans-123-114-after-alvarado-and-williams-exchange-punches-in-testy-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373194\/","title":{"rendered":"Booker leads Suns past Pelicans 123-114 after Alvarado and Williams exchange punches in testy game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 Devin Booker scored 20 points, including two clutch jumpers down the stretch, and the Phoenix Suns beat the New Orleans Pelicans 123-114 on Saturday night for a two-game sweep of their back-to-back set.<\/p>\n<p>Booker led seven Suns in double figures. Dillon Brooks had 18 points, Collin Gillespie scored 17, Jordan Goodwin added 16 and Royce O\u2019Neale finished with 15.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Trey Muphy III had 24 points for the Pelicans, and Zion Williamson scored 22 off the bench on 8-of-11 shooting. Rookie center Derik Queen had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Jeremiah Fears scored 18 and Saddiq Bey finished with 17.<\/p>\n<p>The game got chippy in the third quarter after New Orleans went on a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to 73-71. Following a whistle, Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado and Phoenix center Mark Williams exchanged punches. Both were ejected.<\/p>\n<p>The two tangled after the 7-foot-1 Williams set a ball screen on the 6-foot Alvarado, who pushed Williams out of the way. After the whistle, Williams shoved Alvarado in the back, and a fight ensued.<\/p>\n<p>With the Suns resting their starters early in the fourth quarter, Jamaree Bouyea scored 10 straight points, capped by a 3-pointer from the right baseline, to give Phoenix a 107-95 lead with 7:01 left.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Pelicans used an 11-1 spurt, capped by Williamson\u2019s two free throws, to pull to 108-106. But the Suns answered with seven straight points \u2014 five by Booker \u2014 to regain control.<\/p>\n<p>Bouyea finished with 12 points and Williams had 10.<\/p>\n<p>Just as they did in their 115-108 victory over New Orlewans on Friday night, the Suns dominated the boards, especially in the first half when they built a 65-55 lead. Phoenix outrebounded New Orleans 36-20, including 17 offensive rebounds that led to a 24-9 edge in second-chance points.<\/p>\n<p>Gillespie made all five of his 3-point attempts in the first half \u2014 four in a four-minute span of the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix finished 20 of 44 from long range after going 8 of 40 on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p>Suns: Visit the Washington Wizards on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Pelicans: Host the New York Knicks on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 Devin Booker scored 20 points, including two clutch jumpers down the stretch, and the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[158797,36974,36057,6416,182692,45194,22541,45193,22495,355,6099,6932,361,6415,162352,99,182691,95710,11948,29771],"class_list":["post-373194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-collin-gillespie","tag-derik-queen","tag-devin-booker","tag-dillon-brooks","tag-jamaree-bouyea","tag-jeremiah-fears","tag-jordan-goodwin","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-mark-williams","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-saddiq-bey","tag-sports","tag-straight-points","tag-the-suns","tag-washington-wizards","tag-zion-williamson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}