The Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets met again in Phoenix on a night that carried plenty of juice, and the home team came away with a 102-99 win at PHX Arena. With the game hanging in the balance late, Devin Booker and Jalen Green did the heavy lifting for Jordan Ott’s group, and they also delivered the kind of sequence that will live on the highlight reel.
Phoenix was up by two with a little more than four minutes remaining when the game tightened into a late grind. Booker and Green were central to the Suns’ push, and the two also teamed up for a half-court alley-oop that turned heads in a close fourth quarter.
Booker led the Suns with 24 points on 10-of-24 shooting, while Green added 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting against his former team. Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges and Luke Kennard each chipped in more than 10 points as Phoenix shot better than 48 percent from the floor.
Houston got strong scoring from Kevin Durant and Fred VanVleet, but it wasn’t enough to swing the result. Durant had 19 points in 34 minutes early in the contest before finishing with 21 points in 38 minutes, while VanVleet scored 16 points in 31 minutes.
SHOWTIME!
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 8, 2026
Devin Booker with the HALF-COURT alley-oop to Jalen Green 😤 pic.twitter.com/gF0YBKacrQ
The Rockets also got 8 blocks, but the Suns answered with 29 assists and enough balance to pull out the win. Houston dropped to 7-3, while Phoenix improved to 3-5 after a much-needed victory in front of its home crowd.
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But any chase for Sabonis comes with a familiar warning for this team: the defense could get even shakier. The Suns already have real problems on that end, and adding a center whose limitations there are well known would put more pressure on the rest of the roster to cover for him. If Dillon Brooks has to be part of the deal, Phoenix would also be giving up one of its more useful defensive pieces, which only makes the fit harder to sort out. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Starting Oso Ighodaro Says A Lot About Their Bigger Dilemma
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Dillon Brooks Just Gave Rockets Fans Another Reason To Hate This Matchup
Dillon Brooks is already giving the upcoming meeting with Houston a little more edge than your average regular-season game. The Suns forward, who spent time with the Rockets before landing in Phoenix, has been open about the fact that this one means something extra to him, and the backdrop only adds to it with the recent social media back-and-forth involving Kevin Durant and Suns owner Mat Ishbia.
Brooks also addressed Durants subliminal posts tied to Brooks past DUI arrest, a reminder that this matchup has picked up plenty of off-court baggage before the ball is even tipped. For Suns fans, it is another layer to a game that already carried some personal history, and for Houston, it is the kind of return visit that tends to bring a little more heat than usual. [Read more 🡒]