Who: Phoenix Suns (33-24) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (27-30)
When: 6:00pm Arizona Time
Where: Mortgage Matchup Center— Phoenix, Arizona
Watch: Arizona’s Family 3TV, Arizona’s Family Sports, Suns+
Listen: KMVP 98.7
The Phoenix Suns are right back at it Sunday night, less than 24 hours after a double overtime grind against Orlando that somehow delivered one of the season’s defining moments. For multiple reasons. It took real work to get there, but Jalen Green’s game-winning three-pointer cut through the noise and sent everyone home smiling. That glow faded fast once the news hit. Dillon Brooks broke his hand in that game, and there is no clear timetable yet for when he will be back.
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Such is life in the NBA. Such is life and sports. Such is life.
You flip the page, you circle the next date, and you lock in on what is right in front of you. That next task shows up wearing Portland across its chest.
The Trail Blazers sit six games back of the Suns in the standings, parked comfortably in the 10th seed, with a little breathing room over Memphis down in 11th. On paper, that is a game Phoenix usually handles. In reality, with bodies piling up on the injury report and legs still feeling sore Saturday night, nothing comes free here.
This is another one that has to be earned. If the Suns want to walk away with it, they either need to shoot the ball better, move the ball better, or preferably do both. Because neither showed up against Orlando.
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Probable Starters
Injury Report
Suns
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Jalen Green — QUESTIONABLE (Right Knee Injury Managemen)
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Grayson Allen — QUESTIONABLE (Right Ankle Sprain)
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Devin Booker — OUT (Right Hip Strain)
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Dillon Brooks — OUT (Left Hand)
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Jordan Goodwin — OUT (Left Calf Strain)
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Haywood Highsmith — OUT ( Right Knee Injury)
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Cole Anthony — OUT (Not With Team)
Trail Blazers
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Deni Avdija — QUESTIONABLE (Low Back, Injury Management)
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Damion Lillard — OUT (Left Achilles Tendon)
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Shaedon Sharpe — OUT (Left Calf Strain)
What to Watch For
First up? Who the heck is going to play?! That injury report is tough to look at.
Expect a heavy dose of threes in this one. Portland sits 28th in three-point percentage at 34.1%, but they launch them anyway, second most attempts in the league at 42.5 per game. We have seen this movie before. Last time these two played, the Suns fell into an early hole due to a mix of shaky perimeter defense and Portland catching fire. That turned into a dangerous cocktail that had the Suns down by as many as 19 points.
Phoenix eventually clawed back and escaped with a 130–125 win on February 3, but that start cannot repeat itself.
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Portland also presents a size problem, one that pokes directly at a Suns soft spot. They are sixth in the league at 45.9 rebounds per game and third in offensive rebounding rate at 35.4%. That translates to league-best second-chance points at 18.3 per night. Donovan Clingan sets the tone there, leading the NBA with 4.7 offensive rebounds a game. He has to be accounted for, every possession.
And yeah, but this feels like a spot where giving rookie Khaman Maluach a look could help. Purely for size. A body. Someone to box out and absorb contact. I do not know if this is full experimentation season yet, but against Portland, I would not hate seeing it.
Key to a Suns Win
Shoot better.
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I know that sounds like the most basic form of analysis imaginable, but sometimes the simple truth is still the truth. In February, the Phoenix Suns are shooting 34.2% from three, which sits 23rd in the NBA. At the same time, they are fifth in three-point rate, with 47.3% of their shots coming from deep. The volume is there. The accuracy is not. That gap has to close if Phoenix wants to beat Portland.
That task gets harder when Devin Booker is out, and it gets harder again without Dillon Brooks. Brooks may not always be efficient, but he has still made the fourth-most threes on the team this season. Those shots do not disappear. Someone has to absorb them. That responsibility now falls on Collin Gillespie, Royce O’Neale, Grayson Allen, and Ryan Dunn. They need to lock in and convert the clean looks they are getting.
Pair that with protecting the glass. Second-chance points are killers, especially for a team already dealing with injuries and heavy legs. Extra possessions drain you fast. Phoenix cannot afford to hand those out.
Prediction Time
Expect the unexpected. The Suns are wounded right now, no way around it, but there is still plenty of fight in this group. We saw it against Orlando. That was a game they probably lost nine times out of ten, and somehow they dragged it across the finish line anyway.
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Now it is Sunday, and Portland is standing in front of them. This feels like one of those nights where things get weird, where effort and timing matter more than polish. The kind of night where a role player steps into the light and keeps everything from tilting the wrong way.
Call it a hunch, call it basketball intuition, call it “there’s no one else to score”, but it feels like a Royce O’Neale night. The Suns are going to need one.
Suns 118, Trail Blazers 115
