Written by Rich Swerbinsky

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Five game winning streak, meet the Phoenix Suns. The Cavs were taken out behind the woodshed last night by the sizzling Phoenix Suns, who dropped 67 first half points on the Cavs in a stunning spectacle of flawless basketball. Steve Nash ended with 21 assists, and the Suns improbably registered assists on their first 19 buckets last night. On a well deserved night off for the talented John Hnat, I fill in with the recap. Five game winning streak, meet the Phoenix Suns.

The Cavs came back down to Earth last night, getting run out of the America West Arena in a 109-90 loss to the red hot Phoenix Suns.  It was the eighth straight win for the Suns, who moved to 15-1 on the season against foes from the Eastern Conference.

Phoenix was nearly flawless on this night, executing their frenetic style of play at a highly efficient level.  As a fan of the NBA, and forgetting that I was watching my beloved Cavaliers get taken behind the woodshed, it was a beautiful thing to watch.

The Suns blew this game wide open with a 21-2 run to end the first half that gave them a 67-41 lead at the break.  Yes, that's right, 67 first half points.  Amazingly, the Suns registered assists on each of their first nineteen baskets, and ended the game with 36 assists in total.

Per usual, the ringleader for the vaunted Sun attack was back to back league MVP Steve Nash, who had 21 assists ... 14 of them in the first half.  It was Nash's second 20+ assist game of the season, and one off of his career high of 22.  Nash was a maestro, doling out assists to six different players in the first quarter, brilliantly leading the incredibly fast paced Phoenix assault.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers were clearly out of their comfort zone in this game.  The Cavs have become more of a plodding team under Mike Brown in his second year at the helm, and are much more comfortable playing games in the nineties.  The Cavs were lured into trying to run with Phoenix, and took far too many low percentage outside shots with plenty of time left on the shot clock.  And the shots just weren't falling on this night for the Cavs, who shot just 38% from the floor, and 9-28 from three point land.

LeBron James scored 34 points for the good guys, but 14 of those came to start the meaningless fourth quarter after the Suns had stretched their lead to 91-59 after three.  James also had five turnovers, and was pretty much held in check by Shawn Marion through three periods.  The only other Cav in double digits was Drew Gooden, who ended with 11 points.

The Cavs fell to 22-13 on the year with the loss, and move on La La Land to play the Clippers Saturday night in the third game of their seven game west coast bender.