On a day when giving was the norm, the Phoenix Suns did the taking.
Kevin Johnson, who had 36 points and nine rebounds, said the real Suns showed up in a 111-91 Christmas Day victory over Houston, which tied an NBA record with a 22-1 start but since has lost two straight.
Phoenix is headed the other way, beating Seattle and the Rockets after losing by 26 points Tuesday at Denver.
“The trademark of our team has always been that if we play poorly or underachieve, we come back and play well,” Johnson said.
“It’s a couple of wins,” coach Paul Westphal said.
“We like them, but we’re not going to make any more of it than that.”
The Suns’ aggressive defense stopped Houston’s perimeter game, and Phoenix neutralized its height disadvantage by outrebounding the Rockets 53-35.
Charles Barkley tied his season high with 38 points and had 18 rebounds, and A.C. Green collected 14 rebounds. He also scored seven of his 17 points in the final 2 minutes 40 seconds.
Hakeem Olajuwon had 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Rockets, and Robert Horry scored 20.
Johnson had 18 points in the second quarter, when the Suns took advantage of fast-break baskets to expand a 24-21 first-quarter lead to 61-39 at halftime.
“There is no one in the league we would beat when you allow 32 transition points in the first half,” Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.
“You can’t beat any team like that. We really had too many mental errors.”
Olajuwon said the Rockets came in planning to slow down the Suns, who were averaging 110 points a game.
“To beat this team, you have to make them play five-on-five basketball, which was our game plan, but we gave them too many opportunities to get easy baskets,” Olajuwon said.
Barkley scored 13 points in the third period, helping the Suns to an 84-68 lead. But the Suns went 4:45 without a point early in the fourth quarter and Olajuwon led a 12-0 rally.
The dominating center started the run with a basket and finished it with a three-point play, shaving the deficit to 88-82 with 7:10 left.
But Barkley snapped his team out of its funk with an offensive rebound. Although he missed the layup, Barkley was fouled and made two free throws, and the Suns went on a 7-0 run to open breathing space.
“Nobody can play at the level we were playing at the first three quarters,” Barkley said. “They made a run, but we hung on.”
The Suns stopped a three-game road winning streak by the Rockets, who dropped to 0-2 in games when an opponent made more than half its shots.
The Suns shot 52.4 percent to 39.8 for Houston.
