Let the grind begin…
Who: Phoenix Suns (0-0) @ Los Angeles Clippers (0-0)
When: 7:00pm Arizona Time
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
Watch: ESPN, Arizona’s Family 3TV, Arizona’s Family Sports
Listen: KMVP 98.7
Insert the Heath Ledger meme here…because HERE WE GO! The 2024-25 season tips off tonight for the Suns as they take on the Los Angeles Clippers! I feel like Kevin McAllister running around his unbelievably enormous house in the Chicago suburbs (what did his dad do for a living?!) after learning that he made his family disappear. I can barely contain my excitement. The grind begins tonight!
There are so many questions surrounding this Phoenix Suns team. How will the rotations look? Will the three-point shooting experiment work in their favor? What will this team be on defense? Is Ryan Dunn going to be Kawni Leonard 2.0? Will having playmaking solve their issues?
One game won’t give us all the answers, but starting tonight, we’ll begin to see and understand who this Suns team really is.
The Clippers are a team that not too many are high on as the season begins. It makes sense, right? They lost Paul George to Philly. Kawhi is out indefinitely. As Steve Balmer opens his $2 billion arena, it’s James Harden who will be their marquee player. 35-year-old James Harden. It’s easy to see why their over/under win total this season is 35.5 wins. This team won 51 a season ago. But this ain’t the same Clippers team.
Probable Starters
Injury Report
Suns
- Grayson Allen – PROBABLE (Right Achilles Soreness)
- Damion Lee – PROBABLE (Left Hamstring Soreness)
- Josh Okogie – OUT (Right Hamstring Strain)
Clippers
- Kawhi Leonard — OUT (Illness)
- Mo Bamba — OUT (Left Knee Soreness)
- P.J. Tucker — OUT (Not With Team)
Uniform Matchup
What to Watch For
The three-ball, of course!
Welcome, Suns fans, to modern basketball.
Key to a Suns Win
Defense, defense, defense.
It’s the one issue I think this team has yet to address, although additions like Ryan Dunn will truly help. With such a potent team offensively, their defense is a big question mark. Are they going to try to Seven Seconds or Less Suns this thing and rely on outscoring every team to win? Or can they stop the opposition from putting points up as well?
I didn’t like what I saw in the first quarters during the preseason as it relates to defense. We were ooooh’d and awwwww’d by the offense, meanwhile, the team was a white picket fence without rails on the defensive side of the ball.
The team was outscored by 25 points — 171 to 146 — in five preseason first quarters. While the Suns shot 45.5% from the field and 41.9% from deep, their opponents went for 56.1% from the field and 42% from deep. They were outrebounded 63-51.
A strong start is a must, and it starts defensively.
Prediction
Mason Plumlee revenge game downloading? I kid, I kid.
It’ll be fascinating to see how the Suns perform when it really counts—whether they can shake off the echoes of the past and stay focused on their present goals, especially in those crucial fourth quarters. We’re all hyped to watch this team in action, and kicking things off against the Clippers and Lakers feels like the perfect way to set the tone. Two division rivals, two chances to make a statement.
Suns take this one. They launch 44 three-pointers and drain 17 of them, hitting at a solid 38.6%. We laugh, we cry, and we prepare for 81 more games.
Suns 112, Clippers 105