Suns falter late in loss to Rockets

There were several times Thursday night where it seemed the Suns were going to survive Houston's superior bench play, their 12 offensive rebounds and 26 assists and extend their winning streak to a season-long four games to pull themselves within two of the .500 mark.

Unfortunately, the last three minutes wasn't one of those times, and the result was their second loss to the Rockets last week, a 96-89 decision on their home floor.

With the Suns leading by one, 85-84 with 6:10 remaining, the Rockets went on an 8-0 run over the next 2:58 to seize control of the game and grab a 92-85 lead. During the run, the Suns committed three of their eight fourth-quarter turnovers. Phoenix committed six turnovers in the game's final 5:21 after committing five in the first 39-plus minutes. Two nights after Steve Nash won a game for Phoenix with a late shot, the Suns reverted back to the team that hasn't shown up down the stretch all season.

Suns coach Alvin Gentry harped on the offensive rebounds -- something he felt his team was ready to stop Thursday, only to see them dominated after the first few minutes.

"You can't give up 22 second-chance points and only get back six," Gentry said. "That's just too much of a discrepancy there. The thing that's so disheartening there is that first possessions we played great, they shot (30 percent) and because of second-chance points they ended up shooting 48 percent for the game. I thought we battled and did a good job but we have to find a way to come up with the ball and on top of that we've got to find a way to win games at home."

The Suns have lost seven of 12 games at US Airways Center, a place where they have lost only seven times in a season in the past. Now the Suns head back out on the road, where they are 6-8 but have won two straight, for a three-game trip that starts Saturday in Sacramento.

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