PHILADELPHIA - Nothing like playing the league's worst defense to charge up your offense. Well, sort of.
The Sixers, behind a sterling effort by Jrue Holiday, weathered a few shaky series in the fourth quarter to hold off the Phoenix Suns, 104-101, Sunday night at Wells Fargo Center, snapping a two-game skid.
Doug Collins' crew hosts Dallas Tuesday night, ending a stretch of nine in 10 at home.
While no team gives up more points per game than the Suns, no team scores as much as them. That stat put the Sixers in a bind late, when a Jermaine O'Neal runner in the lane closed Phoenix to within one point, at 98-97, with 1:06 remaining.
Out of a timeout, Jason Richardson dribbled left and fired in a shot from the top of the key with 47 seconds to go. The Suns' Michael Beasley hit right back, following with two free throws, to get it back to within one.
Holiday's 16-foot, pullup jumper with 26 ticks left made it a three-point game, until the Suns' Markieff Morris dropped in a layup. Holiday left the door open for the Suns, making one of two freebies at the other end to make it a 103-101 game. But Beasley missed a 1-footer, Evan Turner pulled down the rebound and made it official.
Holiday had 33 points and 13 assists, Turner had 16 points, and Lavoy Allen had 11 points and six boards for the Sixers (8-6).
Phoenix (6-8) entered the contest with the league's worst defense against 3-pointers. That must've been in the Sixers' gameplan in the early going, with the home team canning a pair from beyond the arc to open up with a six-point edge.
That hot shooting didn't last long, though. The Sixers, whose first three attempts found the inside of the rim, missed nine of their next 12. It didn't keep them from taking a 23-20 lead into the second quarter, only the fourth time this season they've been able to do that.
Phoenix proceeded to go on an 11-2 run to open the second stanza, capping it at the 8:37 mark and cutting the Sixers' lead to four, at 29-25.
Jason Richardson, who got the start after spraining his ankle a night earlier, dumped in a spot-up 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in the opening half to build the Sixers' advantage back to five, at 46-41, at the break. Jrue Holiday's 13 points and Evan Turner's 10 accounted for half of the Sixers' offense at that stage.
In pregame, Sixers coach Doug Collins said the Suns - who've been known to rally from large deficits - have "peaks and valleys" in their style of play. Collins also called them "mood swings." Whatever they were, they manifested in a back-and-forth third quarter.
Turner and Holiday connected for a highlight-reel play midway through the third, when Turner pulled down a defensive rebound and then sent a baseball pass full-court to Holiday for an easy, uncontested lay-up.
Holiday, who's usually on the giving end of buckets, had a double-double after 36 minutes. It was Holiday's fifth double-double of points and assists, which tied him for second-most in the league.
Entering the fourth with an 80-75 lead, the Sixers wasted no time in coughing it up to the Suns.
Luis Scola put the finishing touches on a 6-0 run, his free throws giving Phoenix an 81-80 lead only three minutes into the fourth. But the Sixers responded with a 9-2 spurt over the next three minutes to regain the lead.
Scorching the nets to the tune of 11-for-15 shooting at one stretch, Holiday seemed to have lost his scoring touch at one point in the fourth quarter. He clanged three consecutive attempts at crucial junctures, with Phoenix keeping the game within two possessions.
Holiday made good on it, though, with a traditional 3-point play. He pulled down a Richardson miss for a putback off the glass, then polished it off with a free throw. That gave the Sixers a 98-91 lead with less than four minutes to go.
Visit Christopher A. Vito's Sixers blog at delcotimes.com for more coverage.
TWO THUMBS UP
**Jrue Holiday was unflappable.
**Evan Turner nearly had a double-double.
TWO THUMBS DOWN
**Arnett Moultrie looked unpolished
**Kwame Brown, for airballing a free throw.