Kevin Durant's tie-breaking jumper lifts Suns over Mavericks 130-126

DALLAS (AP) — Kevin Durant’s tiebreaker jumper was like so manybefore — right on target in the closing seconds.

Luka Doncic’spotential tying floater moments later in front of the rim wasunlike most of his — spinning around and out.

What happenednext was familiar — a little bad blood from last season’s playoffseries spilling, with Doncic and Devin Booker nose-to-nose beforegetting double technicals.

Durant scored37 points, including thego-ahead shot, to lift the PhoenixSuns to a 130-126 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday in athrilling showcase of stars for both teams.

KD (35 PTS) FOR THE LEAD 😱128-126 SUNS WITH 0:11 LEFT ON ABC pic.twitter.com/sgNLuGArLn

The firstmeeting between Durant and Dallas’ Kyrie Irving since they weretraded by Brooklyn before the deadline last month was even at126-all when Durant pulled up over Tim Hardaway Jr. and Irving, whoscrambled over for the double team when Durant went to hisleft.

Too late.

“Nobody’sever going to retreat when they guard me,” Durant said. “Sosometimes I’ve got to veer off instead of straight-line driving it.I felt like I had a good handle on the ball. Once I had it on myhip I felt like I was in good position to stop on a dime."

Irving scored30 points exactly four years to the day since the last time hefaced Durant, when his Boston Celtics blew out Durant and hisGolden State Warriors 128-95.

Doncic had 34points and nine rebounds before the point-blank shot that couldhave tied it. He grabbed Durant for a foul after the rebound with3.5 seconds remaining.

After thefoul, Doncic and Booker, who scored 36 points, pushed and jawed ateach other as officials and team personnel separated them beforeDurant’s two clinching free throws.

It was the14th technical of the season for Doncic, two away from a one-gamesuspension.

The teamsfinished tied 2-2 in the season series, with playoff seedings inthe Western Conference wide open below top-seeded Denver.

Thebunched-up standings could mean an early rematch from last season’sWest semifinals, when Doncic and the Mavs blew out Booker, ChrisPaul and the Suns in Game 7 in Phoenix.

A photo ofagoofy-grinning Donciclooking at Bookerwent viral after that series. The lastregular-season meeting of 2022-23 brought more tension.

“I loved it,”said Hardaway, who scored 18 of his 21 points in the first half andwas 6 of 8 on 3-pointers. “I know 77 isn’t going to back down fromanybody. It was bound to happen at some point, them coming face toface. Just happy it happened here at home.”

Booker saidhe was talking to the official, but Doncic was skeptical.

“Based on thewords, I don’t think so,” Doncic said.

BecauseBooker said he was talking to an official, the Phoenix starbelieved Doncic said something first with his expletive-lacedmessage.

“You guys sayyou don’t want everybody to be friendly-friendly, there you go,”Booker said. “We got some smoke.”

Paul scoredeight of his 11 points in the fourth quarter for one of severaltiebreaking or go-ahead buckets for both teams.

Phoenixtwo-way player Ish Wainwright, who was a role player 100 miles (160km) down the road from Dallas at Baylor before a brief stint as atight end for the Bears, went 4 for 5 from 3-point range in thesecond half for 12 points. The last of those 3s put the Suns up twowith 2:07 remaining.

Durant was 12of 17 from the field and 10 of 11 from the line in his first30-point performance in three games since joining the Suns in ablockbuster deal with the Nets that came days after the Mavsacquired Irving.

Phoenix is3-0 with Durant, while Dallas dropped to 3-6 since Irving joinedthe club. The Mavs are 2-3 on a six-game homestand, their longestof the season.

TIP-INS

Suns: JoshOkogie was 0 of 8 on mostly corner 3s when Torrey Craig hit onefrom the left corner and Wainwright dropped two in a row from theright corner to turn Phoenix’s 93-85 deficit into a 94-93 lead latein the third quarter. ... Deandre Ayton had nine points and 16rebounds. Just three of the points came after the opening minutes,but two were on a putback during the frantic final minute.

Mavericks:F/C Maxi Kleber was inactive after playing two games coming off ahamstring tear that had sidelined him since December. ... F DavisBertans (left calf strain) was available for the first time sinceFeb. 2.

THIGHISSUE

Doncic leftthe court in the second quarter for treatment on a left thigh issuethat he said has been affecting him for about a week. He said thiswas the worst the injury had felt but that it didn’t affect themissed shot late.

35TIMES TWO

Durant andBooker are the first Phoenix teammates to score at least 35 pointsin the same game since Booker did it with TJ Warren in 2017.

UPNEXT

Suns: PlayOklahoma City at home Wednesday.

Mavericks:Play Utah on Tuesday to finish the six-game homestand.