Sizzling shooting propels Suns over Nets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Facing daunting matchups inside against Suns big men Shaquille O’Neal and Amaré Stoudemire, New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank knew he would likely have to roll the dice and double-team in the paint often Tuesday.

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He gambled the Suns would have an off-night from outside. He’d rather give up a 3-pointer than a layup or dunk. It was a decent plan. And then the game started.

The Suns shot 63 percent in the first quarter, which proved to be just a warm-up for the second when they hit 13-of-14 shots from the field (93 percent), the best shooting quarter in the NBA in almost eight years.

But Phoenix still had to clean up some sloppy passing before it could put away the Nets in the second half and roll to a 114-86 win at Izod Center, starting the season with three wins in four games.

While O’Neal and Stoudemire (6-for-9) dominated inside, the Suns hit 12 of 18 3-pointers, including 6-for-6 by Raja Bell. Only a mere mortal 50 percent effort by the reserves in the fourth quarter kept Phoenix out of the record books.

“It’s hard when you’re always pulling the ball out of the net,” Frank said . “You can’t get beat both in the paint and the 3-point line. It’s got to be a choice.”

O’Neal hit 7 of 8 shots and even 4 of 5 free throws.

“I’ve won a lot of games and gotten shooters a lot of big contracts over the years playing like that,” O’Neal said.

The Suns then made all of their shots in the second quarter except for one — a miss by Boris Diaw that O’Neal quickly cleaned up with a dunk — for the league’s best shooting quarter since Seattle hit 16 of 17 (94 percent) against Dallas in November 2000.

At halftime the Suns were shooting a blistering 76.7 percent (23-for-30), well ahead of both the franchise record for a game (69.6 percent against Golden State in 1980) and the NBA record of 70.7 percent set in 1983 by San Antonio against Dallas.

But 14 Suns turnovers and 17-for-20 foul shooting by New Jersey kept the Nets within striking distance at 65-55.

“But it’s fool’s gold,” Frank said. “You’re going to run out of bullets. They have more than we do.”

The Suns polished off the Nets with a 13-2 run that featured Bell’s fifth and sixth 3-pointers.

“You know you have some great flow when you see guys passing up an OK shot to get someone a wide open one,” Bell said. “And when everyone is doing that, we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

SUNS AT PACERS

When: 5 p.m. today

Where: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

TV: KUTP (Ch. 45)

Radio: KTAR (620 AM)