Devin Booker had 37 points and nine assists, Dillon Brooks scored 28 points and made a late layup and the host Phoenix Suns held off the Dallas Mavericks 112-107 on Wednesday to clinch the seventh seed in the West playoffs.
Royce O’Neale scored 14 points and fellow reserve Collin Gillespie had 13 for the Suns (44-36), who lost an 18-point lead and fell behind in the fourth quarter in their final regular-season home game.
The Suns will open the play-in round Tuesday at home against the Los Angeles Clippers or Portland Trail Blazers. The Clippers (41-38) are 1 1/2 games ahead of Portland (40-40) for the eighth seed in the West with two games to play.
John Poulakidas had a career-high 23 points and made five 3-pointers and Marvin Bagley III had 20 points for the Mavericks (25-55), who have lost 10 of 12.
Cooper Flagg had 11 points, 13 rebounds and six assists, strengthening his Rookie of the Year case. Flagg and his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets are in a two-man race.
The Suns had an 18-point lead early in the second half but the Mavericks used a 16-0 burst to close before taking a 95-93 lead on Max Christie’s 3-pointer with eight minutes remaining. Christie had 18 points and four threes.
Booker’s 3-pointer gave the Suns a 110-104 lead with 1:13 remaining before Poulakidas answered with a three moments later, but Oso Ighodaro blocked Moussa Cisse’s layup and Brooks made a layup for a 112-107 lead with 13.7 seconds left.
Suns rookie center Khaman Maluach had a career-high 14 rebounds and blocked a Flagg dunk in the fourth quarter in his first start.
O’Neale and Brooks made four 3-pointers, Jordan Goodwin had three and the Suns went 14 of 35 from distance.
The Suns lost starters Jalen Green (right knee) and Goodwin (left ankle) to left injuries in the first half and neither returned.
Green left the game and limped to the locker room with 8:10 remaining in the first quarter after missing his first two field goal attempts. He missed 41 of the first 43 games with a right hamstring injury and started the last 24.
Goodwin, who had nine points on three 3-pointers, left in the second quarter.
–Field Level Media
