AYTON MATCHES CAREER HIGH 35 POINTS, SUNS TOP NETS

By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer

NEW YORK (AP) —

These aren’t the Phoenix Suns that fell apart after Devin Booker was hurt.

The team he came back to is surging and doesn’t expect that to change.

“We’re going to have this thing rolling now,” Deandre Ayton said. “Suns basketball on the way for sure.”

Ayton matched his career high with 35 points, Booker scored 19 in his first game since Christmas and the Suns held off Cam Thomas and the Brooklyn Nets 116112 last night.

Booker missed 21 games with left groin strain. The Suns had a stretch of nine losses in 10 games early in his absence but hung in well at the end and have won nine of 11.“Now we’re back and we have our guy back, so he knows we’re locked and loaded,” Ayton said.

Lebron

FROM PAGE 11 stars who made sure they were there to see history — became the league’s all-time leading scorer on April 5, 1984 and wound up retiring in 1989 with 38,387 points.

It was a record that some thought would last forever, with very few even coming close. Karl Malone retired 1,459 points behind AbdulJabbar, Kobe Bryant was 4,744 points shy, and

The 21-year-old Thomas led a late charge and finished with 43 points, becoming the youngest player in NBA history with three straight 40-point games. He had 44 and a career-high 47 points in his previous two games, but the Nets are 1-2 during Thomas’ run.

“Obviously I’d rather have the win because it sounds better when you have these 40-point games with the two (games) that we lost, but it’s just good to have my name in history,” Thomas said.

Mikal Bridges had 17 of his 21 points in the second half and played a key role in the defensive effort that cooled off Thomas just long enough for the Suns to use a 13-4 run to build a 109-97 lead with 2:25 remaining.

Booker scored six points and set up Ayton for another basket during that stretch.

“That’s all I want right there is just competition and being back out there with the band and just feeling that energy, feeling that presence,” Booker said. “The team has it rolling right now, so just insert myself in a way that wasn’t disruptive and try to keep the flow that they have.”

Thomas rallied the Nets mostly from the free-throw line, and his intentional miss with 4.1 seconds remaining left the Suns with a 114-112 lead. He then fouled Ayton, who finished it off with two free throws after going 14 for 18 from the field and grabbing 15 rebounds.

Nic Claxton and T.J. Warren had 17 points each for the Nets, who lost on back-to-back nights after trading Kyrie Irving and fell to 5-9 without the injured Kevin Durant. They opted not to play Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian

Finney-Smith, the players they acquired from Dallas in the trade for Irving. Ben Simmons had two points and six assists after missing five games with left knee soreness.

TIP-INS Suns: Chris Paul surpassed 2,500 steals, a mark reached by only John Stockton, Jason Kidd and Michael Jordan. He had nine points and 12 assists. Nets: Brooklyn was also without Seth Curry (left adductor strain) and Yuta Watanabe (back tightness).

... Coach Jacque Vaughn said Durant continues to progress well in his recovery but still hasn’t been involved in the any portions of practice where there is contact. Vaughn said he didn’t know when Durant would take that step, and he won’t play before he does. The Nets only have four games remaining before the All-Star break.

ANOTHER TRADE

The Nets dealt forward Kessler Edwards to Sacramento for the rights to 2016 second-round pick David Michineau and cash.

Edwards began last season on a two-way deal before playing well enough to earn a standard NBA contract, but had appeared in just 14 games this season.

DINWIDDIE AND DORIAN

Dinwiddie spent five seasons with the Nets and recalled when he signed a multiyear deal in December 2016 after coming into the league as a secondround pick who battled to prove he was more than a G League player.

“My career’s been hard, and that right there kind of solidified knowing, like, my family’s going to be fine,” Dinwiddie said.

He said there was nostalgia being back in Brooklyn, where he averaged a

SUNS centre Deandre Ayton goes to the basket against the Brooklyn Nets last night in New York.

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) career-best 20.6 points in 2019-20, and praised Finney-Smith’s ability to be an important contributor to the team.

“Understanding that we may not be the best trade package, but we are the best-looking and the Nets needed some help in that department,” he joked.

UP NEXT Suns: At Atlanta on Thursday.

Nets: Host Chicago on Thursday.

Irving From Page 11

was often tumultuous. He took leaves of absence in the 2020-21 season, had to miss much of the 2021-22 season because he wouldn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19 and therefore wasn’t compliant with New York City workplace rules, and this year was suspended eight games after posting a link to a film with antisemitic messaging.

He eventually was welcomed back to the Nets, and played at an All-Star level once again. But when it was time to discuss an extension, the relationship soured again when Irving didn’t like whatever answer the Nets gave. He asked for a trade, and Brooklyn quickly accommodated him.

Michael Jordan was 6,095 points away.

James passed them all, then caught Abdul-Jabbar, too. He did it in his 20th season. Abdul-Jabbar also played 20 NBA seasons.

And now, King James — a moniker he’s had since high school — is the NBA’s scoring king.

Abdul-Jabbar held the ball aloft, then handed it to James, the ceremonial passing of the torch. They posed for photos with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, then with one another. James wiped away tears from his eyes, then addressed the crowd. “I just want to say, thank you to the Laker faithful. You guys are one of a kind,” James said.

“To be able to be in the presence of such a legend as great as Kareem, it’s very humbling. “Please give a standing ovation to the Captain, please.”

James then thanked his family and those who have supported him, including Silver and the late NBA

Commissioner David Stern. “I thank you guys so much for allowing me to be a part of something I’ve always dreamed about,” James said. At least 16 different players have, technically, been the all-time leading scorer in league history — most of those coming in the opening month of the league’s existence in 1946, when everybody was starting from zero and nine different players were atop the scoring list in the first 16 days.

But only six have ended a season officially as the all-time leader: Joe Fulks, George Mikan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Wilt Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar.

James will be the seventh name on that list, and he’s likely to stay there for a long time.

No active player is within 10,000 points of James, who is under contract for two more years and is on pace to become the league’s first 40,000-point scorer sometime next season.

“I just know I want to be places where I’m celebrated, and not just tolerated or kind of dealt with in a way that doesn’t make me feel respected,” Irving said. “There were times throughout this process when I was in Brooklyn that I felt very disrespected. I work extremely hard at what I do. No one ever talks about my work ethic, though. Everyone talks about what I’m doing off the floor. I just want to change that narrative and write my own story and just continue to prepare in the gym and now that I’m in Dallas just focus on what I can control.”

He was asked what, specifically, left him feeling disrespected in Brooklyn.

“That’s another day where I can really go into detail about it,” Irving said.