Leandro Barbosa scored 18 points in his fifth game back from wrist surgery to help the Phoenix Suns stretch their winning streak to a season-best six games with a 132-96 rout of the New York Knicks on Friday night.
The Suns have won 20 of 25 to climb within a half-game of No. 4 Utah and a game of No. 3 Dallas in the Western Conference. Phoenix remained 1 1/2 games behind Denver, the conference's No. 2 team.
Amare Stoudemire scored 18 and Jason Richardson 17 for Phoenix, then sat out the final quarter. Al Harrington had 24 and David Lee 21 for New York.
Mike D'Antoni had a long night in his second trip as Knicks coach to Phoenix, where he had installed the high-speed style that is still the basis for the Suns offense under his former assistant coach Alvin Gentry.
The blowout fell two points shy of Phoenix's most one-sided victory of the season.
Phoenix led by as many as 17 in the second quarter and 32 in the third against a New York team on the first stop of a five-game trip through the West.
A 6-0 spurt put Phoenix ahead for good 26-19, a run that featured a thundering fast-break dunk by Stoudemire on a lob pass from Richardson.
The big lead gave Gentry a chance to stretch the minutes for Barbosa, who returned March 16 after missing 23 games.
The speedy Brazilian, who made 7-of-12 shots, led a 13-3 run that put the Suns ahead 50-35 on his driving reverse layup with 7:56 left in the half. New York never got it to single digits again.
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