High-flying Hawks halt Suns' 11-game NBA winning streak, Clippers hold off Lakers

Young, who was a game-time decision to play after being sidelined by a shoulder injury, made six of Atlanta's 20 three-pointers, his last basket from beyond the arc ending a 6-0 Suns scoring run and putting Atlanta up 122-113 with 37.7 seconds remaining. "It's big-time for us," Young said of Atlanta's eighth win in their last nine games. Phoenix fell to 41-10, still the best record in the NBA, with their first defeat since losing to Miami on January 8.

Devin Booker led Phoenix with 32 points. Mikal Bridges added 24 and Chris Paul scored 18. John Collins and Kevin Huerter scored 19 apiece for Atlanta, who are 10th in the Eastern Conference but on the rise as the All-Star break approaches.

"We started out the season not as fast as we wanted to," Young said. "We had a lot of Covid issues and guys being out, but got our guys back and we've started to play well. We've just got to keep it going.

"We beat a really good team who were on a great streak tonight, and we've just got to keep it going." When the teams met in November the Suns out-scored the Hawks 35-19 in the fourth quarter to rally for a victory. Down by nine entering the fourth quarter, there would be no coming back for the Suns this time. Booker's layup cut Atlanta's lead to 108-101 midway through the fourth.

But Collins delivered a pair of dunks that put Atlanta up by 11 and the Suns wouldn't get the deficit below six points from there. The Clippers won a tense cross-town battle with the Lakers in Los Angeles, where Reggie Jackson's driving layup with 4.1 seconds remaining gave the Clippers a 111-110 victory. Lakers star Anthony Davis, whose dunk had given the Lakers the lead with 12.5 seconds remaining, had a final chance to snatch a victory, but his floater at