Jrue Holiday scored a career-high 33 points and 13 assists to lead the Philadelphia 76ers past the Phoenix Suns 104-101 Sunday.
The young point guard was highly motivated to play his best after losing a previous game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, in which he could score only six points.
"I like having the feel of the game with the pressure on to take the ball in my hands," the Associated Press quoted Holiday as saying. "At crunch-time, I think I made the right plays."
Evan Turner contributed with 16 points and nine rebounds for Philadelphia, whereas Lavoy Allen added 11 points and six rebounds. Thaddeus Young scored 10 points for the 76ers.
"It was a great win for us," Young said. "We take a lot of pride in how we play and we didn't want to lose three straight.
"I think Jrue set the tone from the beginning with his aggressive play. He put us on his shoulders."
For the Suns, Michael Beasley top scored with 21 points, Marcin Gortat had 18 points and seven rebounds, Sebastian Telfair contributed with 12 points, while Jermaine O'Neal had 11 with Goran Dragic and Luis Scola scoring 10 each.
Sunday's loss to Philadelphia was Phoenix's first stop of a six-game road trip.
"We have a young team, but there are no excuses in this league," O'Neal said. "You have to bring it every night. We have a really good team with a lot of really good players. I think it's just a mental mistake here or there that is costing us games."
Philadelphia outscored Phoenix in the first and second quarters 23-20 and 23-21 respectively. The Suns brought it back a little in the third quarter, before Holliday took over near the stretch.
The crucial play came when Holliday grabbed an offensive rebound off a miss from Jason Richardson, before making a three to take the score to 98-91 with 3:47 to go in the game, as the 76ers saw the game though, despite a couple of minor blips.
"Jrue has been doing it all season," Young said. "He's been playing at an extremely high level."
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