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Phoenix Suns veteran guard Chris Paul says breaking the franchise’s record win streak is a “nice piece of history” but insists he was not thinking about it in Thursday’s win over the Detroit Pistons.
The Suns completed an 18th consecutive victory, downing the lowly Pistons 114-103 to improve to 19-3 record to top the Western Conference. Phoenix’s 18 straight wins broke their previous franchise-best mark from the 2006-07 season of 17.
Paul, who had 12 points and 12 assists against the Pistons, has played in many successful sides before but found unique joy in the Suns’ record-breaking streak, even if it was not at the forefront of his mind.
“It’s cool. I really wasn’t thinking about it,” Paul said during the post-game news conference. “Obviously it’s a nice piece of history for the team but for us it’s always about that feeling of playing the game the right way.
“We say this every night, a win is a win, but we feel like we could’ve played better.”
He added: “It’s exciting. Some [other win streaks] were so long ago so you forget. To be on this journey with young guys and having rookies on the team, it’s cool. It’s also cool that guys aren’t stressing about it either. it just happened.”
The Suns were without All-Star guard Devin Booker for the first time this season due to a hamstring injury but had plenty of contributions.
Cameron Johnson and Cameron Payne both scored 19 points off the bench, while JaVale McGee added 10 points from 15 minutes too.
“We were hooping. It was like most nights,” Paul said when asked about the side covering Booker.
“I aint surprised. I don’t expect anything less. It’s how our team is. Every night it’s someone else stepping up and we expect that.”
Suns head coach Monty Williams was awarded Western Conference coach of the month prior to the game after an unbeaten November, with Paul offering up his praise.
“He’s a big reason why I wanted to come play here, because of who he is as a person and as a coach, the principles and the accountability we have here,” Paul said.
