Don't look now, but the Indiana Pacers have now matched their longest win streak of the season. With their third win in a row, the former Eastern Conference Finalists are just two games under the .500 mark.
While this season has already been full of injuries, letdowns, and underachieving, Indiana showed up and turned out a strong performance on the road. After starting out 2-3 away from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Pacers lost eight straight contests on the road.
Thursday night's victory not only gave the Pacers their third consecutive win, but it also gave them a third win in a row on the road, as well.
This was the 100th matchup between the two teams in regular season history. The Phoenix Suns have won 55 times, but Indiana took this last meeting, 120-11.
Here's a look at who torched the Suns and who got burned by them.
Winner: The Pacers' starting big men
Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner were two of Indiana's top performers Thursday night. The starting center scored 19 points and hauled in six rebounds. He also rejected two more opponents' shots. That gives him six blocks in his last two games and 18 for the month of December, so far,
Turner also shot a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Fellow big man, Siakam, went only missed one of his five free throw attempts. The two combined for six makes from behind the arc, too.
The former NBA champion had a team-high 25 points. Siakam made the most field goals (9) and also took the most (22).
Indiana's starting power forward grabbed 18 rebounds including three on the offensive glass. This game was Siakam's third double-double of the season.
Loser: Ben Sheppard
The Pacers' second-yeard guard struggled to find his shot during the 16 minutes he took to the court. Missing all three of his shots from behind the three-point arc doesn't help.
Sheppard scored two points on Thursday. He has only put up 21 points in the last five games while playing more than 20 minutes in four of those contests.
While he did log a steal and a block against Phoenix, Sheppard committed four fouls. That's an average of one every four minutes he was on the court.
Winner: The Pacers' ball control
This was truly a team effort on Thursday. Indiana committed nine turnovers while forcing 16 against the Suns. This helped the Pacers to a lead of 19 at one point in the game.
Starting point guard Tyrese Haliburton led the charge for Indiana. Along with his 13 points, the All-Star talent recorded 12 points to give him another double-double on the season.
Haliburton turned the ball over twice in 37 minutes. The point guard had five assists and one turnover in his 16 minutes of play. That accounted for a third of the Pacers' turnovers.
Despite winning on Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans, Indiana committed 17 turnovers. The Pacers fared much better against the Philadelphia 76ers when they turned the ball over 10 times in their 121-107 win.
Haliburton has his third double-double in as many games. All of which have resulted in a Pacers win.
Loser: Bennedict Mathurin
Since we have seen Mathurin torch opposing defenses a number of times this season, Thursday's outing seemed rather lackluster for the Pacers' swingman.
Mathurin started the game for Indiana and played 37 minutes. He struggled to score 16 points as the former Arizona Wildcat missed eight shots and made six.
The third-year player for Indiana was erratic from behind the arc. Mathurin made two of his seven shots from deep.
On the season, he is averaging more than 17 points a game. Mathurin has yet to score 20 points or more this month.
He did so eight times in November including a 38-point performance at home against the New York Knicks. While we don't expect 30-plus point games every night from Mathurin, he is scoring almost six points less a game this month.
Winner: The third quarter for the Pacers
We're going to start here because this quarter definitely had an impact on the score for Indiana. Not only did the Pacers produce 37 points, their most of all four quarters, but they also held the Suns to 24 points in the same period.
Indiana took with them a slim 60-59 lead into halftime. The third quarter paced the team for their 13th win of the season.
The Pacers are off until Sunday when they travel to Sacramento to play Haliburton's former team. With another strong showing like the one on Thursday, Indiana can take down another Western Conference opponent on the road like they have done to the Suns and the Dallas Mavericks.