Suns, Booker buck Spurs in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Devin Booker said he wanted to make the most of his visit to Mexico City. He did.

The 20-year-old Booker scored a career-high 39 points for the second game in a row and the Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs 108-105 on Saturday in the fifth regular-season game in the country.

Booker, whose grandfather is from Mexico, was 12 of 22 from the field. He also had 39 points Thursday night in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Suns’ Mexican opener.

“I’m proud of the team overall, we bounce back after what happened the other night against Dallas, we play against a really good team like the Spurs and we came out with a close win,” Booker said. “We are seeing beauty in the struggle. We played real well.”

Booker has 13 30-point games in his two-year NBA career.

“Devin Booker does not want to leave Mexico, he’s averaging 39 points, so he wants to play Utah on Monday,” Suns coach Earl Watson said. “I’ m excited for Devin, he’s only 20 years old and he won’t be 21 until October, so we are very excited about his progression and everything that he’s doing.”

Kawhi Leonard had 38 points for the Spurs. They lost for the second time in their last three games.

“The Suns did a great job of being aggressive for 48 minutes they clearly played very competitively as it was evidenced by their 26 or so second chance points they got and we exacerbated with 20 points off our turnovers,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

Booker made two baskets to give the Suns the lead in the last minute, including a dunk off a break with Bledsoe that made it 106-103. Leonard made two free throws to get San Antonio within one. P.J. Tucker made two free throws for Phoenix, and the Spurs’ Danny Green missed an open 3-pointer to seal the win for Phoenix.

Phoenix is the first team to play two regular-season games in the same season south of the border.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers avenged a Christmas Day loss with a 113-97 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers in Saturday’s rematch at Staples Center arena.

In other results, Chicago dumped New Orleans, 107-99; Washington routed Philadelphia, 109-93; and Utah subdued Orlando, 114-107.

Back in LA, the Lakers beat the undermanned Clippers 111-102 three weeks ago as injuries forced Chris Paul, JJ Redick and Blake Griffin to watch from the sidelines.

It was one of just two wins the Lakers had in the month of December and it halted the Clippers’ 11-game win streak. The lowly Lakers have gone 3-4 in January after losing 14 or 16 games in December.