PHOENIX -- Eric Bledsoe and the Phoenix Suns are getting comfortable with playing close games. Bledsoe scored 24 points and Markieff Morris came off the bench to score 23 as the Suns pulled away from the New Orleans Pelicans 101-94 on Sunday night. "Were just a young team and we play extremely hard," Bledsoe said. "Even though things werent going our way, we fought through." Bledsoe hit a long 3-pointer with one second left on the shot clock to give the Suns a 95-85 lead with 1:25 to go. "I just locked in a little bit," Bledsoe said. "I saw time was running down and I wasnt shooting well from 3, but I locked in a shot it with confidence." Morris similarly has upped his game. He shot 9 of 12, and has gone 30 for 38 from the field over his past three games while averaging 24.7 points in that span and playing solid defence. "The first two years I couldnt play without fouling," Morris said. "I watched a lot of film and became a student of the game. I saw why I was picking up dumb fouls. Its a matter of doing the work early." Morris is only the third player since 1989 to notch three consecutive games shooting at least 75 per cent from the floor while taking at least 12 shots, joining Dwight Howard and Charles Barkley. Gerald Green scored 15 and Goran Dragic added 12 for the Suns, who have won four of five. Suns coach Jeff Hornacek became the first coach in franchise history to win his first four home games. Jason Smith scored 22 points while Jrue Holiday and Anthony Morrow each had 16 for the Pelicans. Anthony Davis, who entered the game averaging 23 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, was held to 14 and 12. "Most of the game it was easy for other guys on their team to get shots so they didnt need to feed him too often," Hornacek said. Morrows long jump shot with 6:30 remaining pulled New Orleans within 80-79, but he missed a 3-pointer that could have given the Pelicans their first lead since the final 90 seconds of the first half. After Brian Roberts missed a second-chance jumper following an offensive rebound by Davis, the Suns sprinted downcourt and Morris hit a 3-pointer from the left wing. Morris added a dunk and Phoenix went on a 9-2 run to open an 89-81 lead with 3:31 to go. "Weve got to continue to stay with it," Morrow said. "These grind it out games are good for us where were the youngest team in the NBA. I think we are just ticking up. We have to keep it going." Eric Gordons 3-pointer made it a five-point game, but Dragic and Bledsoe hit 3-pointers to extend the Suns lead to ten. The Suns, who missed their first 10 3-point attempts and made only one 3-pointer through the first three quarters, went 5 of 9 from beyond the arc in the fourth. The Pelicans pulled even at 65 on a layup by Davis with 1:23 left in the third period, but Morris scored the last six points of the quarter to take a 71-65 lead into the fourth. "We just didnt have our best stuff tonight," Pelicans coach Monty Williams said. "You could complain about the whistles but thats not going to get you anywhere. We didnt make an effort to get to the basket. We fell in love with jump shots and didnt finish around the basket." NOTES: Dragic returned after missing three games with a sprained left ankle. ... Phoenix led 19-16 after the first quarter despite shooting 33.3 per cent from the floor. ... Smiths 14 first-half points matched his full-game season high and he broke the 20-point mark for the fifth time in his career. .. Morrow was the only New Orleans player to score off the bench in the first half, scoring eight points while the Pelicans other five bench players went 0 for 8 from the floor in 21 combined minutes. ... New Orleans didnt attempt a free throw in the first half. ... Bledsoes four 20-plus point games match the total he had in 197 career games entering the season. ... Phoenix has won five straight at home. Jermon Bushrod Saints Jersey . "Weve given ourselves now a tougher task," said Carlyle after the Friday practice, the Toronto head coach notably chipper and upbeat throughout. "But the bottom line is we just have to win our share of games [and] not worry about what anybody else is doing. TreQuan Smith Jersey . -- Derek Jeter spoke for 25 minutes, 44 seconds and answered 26 questions about his decision to retire at the end of this season. http://www.authoritysaintsshop.com/demar...ts-jersey-c-75/. The Mavericks avoided a season sweep by the Nuggets, who ran away with a win in Denver two weeks ago to hand Dallas its longest losing streak at three games. Dallas (42-28) got a boost in the playoff race when Miami rallied from seven down in the last 3 1/2 minutes to beat Memphis 91-86 Friday night. Cameron Meredith Saints Jersey . Spezza scored a power-play goal with 5 minutes left and Stephane Da Costa had the other two goals to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. Rick Leonard Jersey . -- Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno was admitted to the hospital Friday for observation due to minor complications from cancer treatments, his family said.Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. This week, they discuss the NCAAs revenue sharing, Don Zimmer, soccer language and Super Bowl 50. Dave Naylor, TSN Radio 1050: My thumb is down to world of big-time American college sports, which reminded us again this week there is no end to hypocrisy when it comes to sharing wealth with its players. This week Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari were rewarded with contracts worth more than $50 million each. This comes just as the NCAA is about to begin defending its right not to share revenues with players; in the lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed OBannon, which starts on Monday. How the NCAA can argue theres not enough money in the system to compensate players when coaches like Saban and Calapari can earn more than $6 million a year should be interesting. But we just know theyll find a way to do it. Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star: My thumb is up to baseball characters. May they live forever in our memory, even as they leave us. The game lost an unforgettable one this week with the passing of Don Zimmer. In a sport built on stories, his was a pure classic. Zimmer met Babe Ruth as a boy, got married to his high-school sweetheart at home plate of a minor-league park, played with Jackie Robinson and won a World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hell probably be remembered best for charging Pedro Martinez back in 2003, when Zimmer was in his 70s at the time. As he said later, "I sure wasnt going over there to kiss him." Baseballs heroes arent always so easy to embrace. So often today we focus on money and moneyball. Zimmers life was about finding a love and fighting to keep it. He loved basebaall so much, it nearly killed him.dddddddddddd As a player, he survived two fastballs to the head. One put him in a coma, another caved in his face. He kept playing after both. He got fired four times as a manager, but he never retired. Nobody ever wanted him to. For characters as unique as Zimmer, there are no replacements. Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: As I said four years ago, and plan to say again in 2018, my thumb is down to anybody in this country who plans to speak world cup soccer English for the next month. I dont want anyone saying a goalkeeper had a clean sheet. Clean sheets are in your linen closet. He had a shutout. The scoree, maybe, was one nothing, not one nil. And please dont tell me the United States needs a result against Ghana. A loss is a result, not a good result, but a result. And just so were clear, its not football here, its soccer. Alright, now carry on and keep calm. Dave Hodge, TSN: My thumb is up, though not for long, to the National Football League for deciding to ditch the Roman numeral "l" for super bowl 50, to be played in February of 2016. The use of Roman numerals began with super bowl 5, sorry, "v", and it has proved to be very successful - in creating confusion. Now that couldnt have been its intention, but what else, pray tell, was it supposed to do? Make the event seem bigger than it is? It needs no help from an ancient alphabet. But, as I said, the NFL is praised here only briefly, because it will return to Roman numerals for super bowl 51 - LI - and theres no end in sight, unless its super bowl 59, which will read LIX, and maybe the NFL wont be fond of Super Bowl licks, which come to think of it, was last seasons super bowl - Denver taking its licks from Seattle. Jerseys NFL Cheap Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Camo Cheap NFL T-shirts Cheap NFL Black Jerseys Cheap Jerseys 2020 ' ' '