By Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY – Donovan Mitchell scored 24 points, Royce O’Neale had a career-high 19 and the Utah Jazz won their 11th straight game, beating the Phoenix Suns 107-97 on Wednesday night.
Derrick Favors had 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert added 14 points and 17 rebounds. Mitchell and Joe Ingles each had six assists.
Devin Booker returned from a hip injury to lead the Suns with 28 points. Josh Jackson added 22 points, and Elfrid Payton had a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. Phoenix has lost seven straight.
Utah had a 54-41 rebounding advantage and a 52-40 edge in points in the paint.
Jackson and O’Neale took turns dominating on offense in the second quarter. O’Neale had nine points in the quarter, and Jackson had eight.
Jackson’s four baskets early in the quarter helped the Suns stick with the Jazz. Phoenix tied it at 36 after he cut to the basket, first for a layup and then a dunk, on back-to-back possessions. Then O’Neale took over late in the quarter, scoring four baskets in the final 3:44 before halftime. He capped it off with a buzzer-beating step-back jumper that gave Utah a 50-41 halftime lead.
The Suns rallied again in the third quarter and went ahead 60-59 on a basket from Alex Len. Mitchell answered with a go-ahead 3-pointer on the other end and eventually put the Jazz back ahead 70-62 on a step-back jumper from the rookie.
Phoenix pulled ahead one more time early in the fourth quarter, taking a 75-74 lead on back-to-back baskets from Marquese Chriss and Jackson. Jae Crowder got to the line on two straight possessions to fuel an 8-0 run that put Utah back in front 85-77.
The Suns cut it to 98-95 on a 3-pointer from Payton, but Crowder answered with back-to-back layups to give the Jazz a 102-95 lead with 1:58 left.
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Booker returns after 4 games
SALT LAKE CITY - Devin Booker, who's missed the last four games with a right hip pointer, said he will play against the Utah Jazz Wednesday.
Booker, who is wearing a pad on his hip, went through his normal pregame workout and said he was good to go.
Interim coach Jay Triano said Booker ran stars at Vivint Smart Home Arena Tuesday, leading him to believe that he could play against the Jazz.
"He did a lot more activity and responded well," Triano said.
Triano said the Suns will watch Booker carefully but that he won't have a strict minutes limit.
"It's more important that he plays the last 25 than playing a lot of minutes in this game," Triano said.
Booker's return means Phoenix will get its first look at what will be its starting backcourt the rest of the season and possibly in 2018-19. Point guard Elfrid Payton has averaged 24 points, 7.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists in two games with the Suns.
Respect earned
Jared Dudley believes there’s one way, and only one way, for the Suns to gain some of the respect they’ve lost this season.
Play hard.
For Dudley, that doesn’t mean knocking a player to the floor when they get into the lane or channeling their inner Raja Bell and clotheslining an opponent to send a message.
It does mean making games as difficult as possible, something Phoenix obviously hasn’t done in recent losses to Golden State, San Antonio and Utah, who the Suns face at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
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“If you don’t play better mad then let’s play better aggressive,” Dudley said. “Get into the ball, get after people. Force things. We haven’t been doing that.
“For us, if we continue to play like we have, and our effort and our decision making and our results (stay the same) no one is going to respect you and no one does right now. They might respect certain players but when we’re losing by 40 teams are coming out to put us down.
“We have to earn respect and you do that by playing hard as hell even when you’re not as talented and when you’re undermanned and basically make it a b---h of a game. And that’s where we fell short doing that."
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Jay Dieffenbach and Dan Bickley discuss the state of the Phoenix Suns in our Shot Clock video.
Injury update
Devin Booker (hip) took part in the Suns’ shootaround Wednesday morning and interim coach Jay Triano said Booker’s availability will be a game-time decision. Booker has missed four straight games. Tyson Chandler (neck) is out, and Alex Len will start in his place at center, Triano said. Dragane Bender will start at power forward. Troy Daniels (finger) said he expects to play and Tyler Ulis (back) is listed as probable.
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