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Suns' Late Rally Falls Short vs Nuggets

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns (29-34) were unable to ride momentum from the previous victory on Tuesday - as they fell to the Denver Nuggets (41-22) tonight by a score of 149-141 in what turned into a wildly entertaining battle between the squads.

The Nuggets had some uncertainty surrounding what the lineup would look like tonight, but Nikola Jokic was cleared to play ahead of tip-off.

The Suns returned Bradley Beal - who missed the second half of the game against the Los Angeles Clippers with a flare up of calf tightness.

Denver jumped out to a 37-28 lead after the opening 12 minutes behind four three-point hits by Aaron Gordon.

The Nuggets ballooned to nearly 20 points in quarter two - but a late surge from the Suns shrunk the deficit to 12 going into halftime. Denver held a lead of 68-56.

The third frame proved to be much of the same, with the Denver lead once again nearly expanding to out-of-hand territory - another late run from Phoenix cut the Nuggets lead to 102-91 going into the final quarter of action.

Devin Booker crossed 16,000 career points midway through the final period of action - and headlined a rally that put Phoenix in position to take a lead late in the game.

A Kevin Durant corner three-point hit at the buzzer forced an overtime period that was dominated by Denver from the start - Phoenix was unable to recover from the 7-0 Denver blitz to start the 5-minute period.

Devin Booker - 34 PTS, 6 REB, 7 AST, 5-10 3PTFG

Kevin Durant - 29 PTS, 9 REB, 4 AST, 10-16 FG

Nick Richards - 18 PTS, 5 REB, 1 BLK, 9-13 FG

Nikola Jokic - 31 PTS, 21 REB, 22 AST, 13-22 FG

Aaron Gordon - 25 PTS, 3 REB, 7-10 3PTFG

The Suns are set to play the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon as part of a four-game road trek.

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