PHOENIX – Kevin Durant and Devin Booker combined for 63 points as the Phoenix Suns sent LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers tumbling to their first defeat of the season in NBA action on Monday.
Booker bagged 33 points and Durant 30 to give the Suns a thrilling 109-105 win at Phoenix’s Footprint Center, avenging the Lakers’ 123-116 win over the Suns in Los Angeles on Friday.
The Lakers arrived in Phoenix buoyed by an impressive 3-0 start to the campaign under new head coach J.J. Redick.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers scorers with 29 points, adding 15 rebounds and three assists. James, however, had a rare off-night, finishing with just 11 points from 3-of-14 shooting.
Suns coach Mike Budenholzer saluted his team’s grit in hauling themselves back from their early 18-point deficit.
“The toughness, the edge that the guys are developing and growing, the competitiveness,” Budenholzer said.
Meanwhile, four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors will miss at least the next two games with a left ankle injury, the team announced.
The four-time NBA champion was injured in the fourth quarter of Golden State’s 112-104 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.