With his team playing the middle game in a stretch of three in three nights, Suns coach Alvin Gentry had Steve Nash and Grant Hill both sit out in street clothes.
"I think it was satisfying for the guys in the locker room, because I think they wanted to prove that we are a good team all around and that we can win games without Steve or Grant," Gentry said. "We didn't have the guy who is the engine to our whole team."
Channing Frye helped engineer the stunning victory with 12 points — on four 3-pointers — and Jared Dudley added 11 points and six rebounds. Sebastian Telfair, filling in for Nash at point guard, had seven points, eight assists and a critical steal of Chris Paul in the final seconds in his first start since Nov. 22, 2010, with Minnesota.
Last month, when the 38-year-old Nash and the 39-year-old Hill sat out a game at Denver, the Suns lost 109-92.
"We really didn't know they weren't playing until we got out on the court," said Blake Griffin, who led the Clippers with 25 points and eight rebounds. "We game-planned for them, so it wasn't in our minds that they weren't going to play. Obviously, those are two key players for them, but our principles are still the same. So things like that shouldn't affect us, and it shouldn't have gone this way at all."
Paul finished with 10 points and 11 assists. The frustrated Clippers, who fell 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Lakers in the Pacific Division after their fifth loss in seven games, kept the dressing room closed for 1 hour, 6 minutes.
"Coach came in and we talked about some things before we got in the showers," Griffin said. "It was very productive. We talked about our sense of urgency, our execution down the stretch and the way we approach games.
"When you get into a setting like that, you talk about things. I mean, it wasn't about pointing a finger at somebody. But if there's a problem and no one ever talks about it, it's not going to get better. So guys talked. And the more you talk, the more you figure things out."
Trailing by 12 early in the fourth, the Suns went on a 10-2 run and closed to 78-76 with 6:57 to play. Reserve guard Ronnie Price hit a driving layup and followed that with a breakaway layup off his steal of Mo Williams to cap the rally.
Dudley's two free throws tied the score 84-all with 2:56 remaining, and Brown's 3 put Phoenix ahead 87-85 nearly 30 seconds later — the Suns' first lead since early in the first quarter. After DeAndre Jordan tied it with two foul shots, Brown gave the Suns the lead for good with two at the other end.
Dudley missed a 3 that would have sealed the win, but Telfair stole the ball from Paul near the Clippers' basket, and Brown closed it out with two more free throws. Los Angeles did not get a field goal after Griffin's 16-footer with 4:37 remaining.
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