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Game Preview: Phoenix Suns (23-54) vs. Houston Rockets (43-34) - Suns try to avoid Rocket blast, 5PM AZ Time

A poor Phoenix Suns team, just 23-54 on the season, comes to Houston riding a 9-game losing streak to face a Rockets team seeded 7th in the West and prepping for playoffs.

By Dave King
USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns, visiting the Houston Rockets as they prepare to finish the season with 4 of their last 5 on the road, are a really bad road team. Not only are the Suns only 7-30 on the the road, they have dropped 10 of their last 12 on the road including their last SIX straight.

But they might prefer being on the road though, after losing 9 of their last 11 home games including SEVEN straight on the home court to the disappointment of die-hard Suns faithful who still came to see them play. At least on the road they won't have see the faces of their fans as they fall apart again in the third quarter.

Hit the road Jack!

The Suns visit a good Houston Rockets team tonight. Led by young James Harden, the Rockets are 43-34 on the season, seeded 7th in the West playoff race at the moment.

At home, they are even better, winning of 27 of 38 games in front of their home crowd including 13 of their last 16. Contrary to the Suns, the Rockets make their fans giddy over the present as well as the future, being the youngest playoff team in the West and ready to sign another max free agent this summer if they want to.

Tonight's outlook

Don't expect tonight to break any mold. The Suns fold on the road and the Rockets dominate at home. This game has all the makings of a really, really ugly game. I mean really ugly.

Of course, I highly recommend watching the game because this is one of the last times you will see the Suns play before a six-month break. As a Suns junkie, that's a LONG time between real games.

For those totally jaded, you can still watch whether doghouse roomies Marcus Morris, Shannon Brown and Michael Beasley get any solid run in this game.

All have challenged the interim head coach in some way, and all have realized he won't just turn the other cheek (unless it's the one on his backside as he walks away from them). This is Hunter's "tough love" that has so far backfired on him in a big way. I'm not a fan of letting the inmates run the asylum, so I have little sympathy for instigators, yet it's on Hunter to get the rest of the team to respond in a positive way and so far that's not happening.

Odds and ends

  • Chandler Parsons and Carlos Delfino have missed recent games and are questionable for tonight's matchup at home against one of the league's worst teams 10 days before the playoffs start. In other words, Houston is not chomping at the bit to play these guys, I'm sure.
  • With a win, the Rockets will secure a playoff spot - it's first in four years. That will be a sad sight for former Rockets Luis Scola, Goran Dragic and Marcus Morris.
  • This is Scola, Dragic and Morris' second return to Houston, the last one ending in a 111-81 bloodbath in which none of them played particularly well.
  • The ever-blunt Luis Scola: "There's no reason why to be positive. So how are we going to stay positive? Nobody should be positive. We have to work hard. The way we do it is we realize that we have problems and that we need to fix them."
  • These two teams play again Monday, but don't expect Houston to be resting anybody. They are fighting the Warriors for the 6th seed, and a chance to avoid facing the Thunder or Spurs in the first round.

FG 3PT FT Rebounds Misc
G M M A Pct M A Pct M A Pct Off Def Tot Ast TO Stl Blk PF PPG
James Harden 73 38.2 7.5 16.9 44.2 2.2 6.1 37.1 8.6 10.1 86.0 0.8 4.0 4.8 5.9 3.6 1.8 0.5 2.3 25.8
Chandler Parsons 73 36.2 5.9 12.3 48.1 2.0 5.2 38.3 1.4 2.0 72.4 1.1 4.3 5.4 3.5 1.9 1.0 0.4 2.0 15.3
Jeremy Lin 77 32.0 4.8 10.8 44.6 1.0 3.0 34.3 2.6 3.3 78.6 0.4 2.6 3.0 6.1 2.9 1.7 0.4 2.5 13.2
Carlos Delfino 63 25.4 3.8 9.3 40.5 2.3 6.3 37.2 0.7 0.9 85.5 0.3 3.0 3.3 2.0 1.1 1.0 0.1 1.7 10.7
Omer Asik 77 30.0 4.1 7.5 54.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.1 3.8 55.5 3.4 8.2 11.6 0.9 2.2 0.6 1.1 2.7 10.3
Aaron Brooks 52 19.1 2.8 6.1 45.4 1.0 2.6 37.3 0.8 1.0 76.9 0.3 1.3 1.5 2.2 1.3 0.6 0.2 1.8 7.2
Donatas Motiejunas 40 12.7 2.4 5.0 47.0 0.6 2.0 30.0 0.8 1.2 61.2 0.8 1.3 2.1 0.7 0.9 0.2 0.2 1.7 6.1
Greg Smith 65 15.1 2.3 3.8 62.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.2 1.9 63.6 1.5 3.0 4.5 0.3 0.6 0.2 0.5 2.4 5.9
Francisco Garcia 53 17.6 2.0 5.2 39.3 1.2 3.0 38.7 0.3 0.3 88.9 0.1 1.4 1.6 1.1 0.5 0.8 0.7 1.6 5.5
Patrick Beverley 36 17.1 1.9 4.5 42.0 0.9 2.3 39.5 0.8 1.0 81.1 1.1 1.5 2.6 3.1 1.1 0.9 0.5 1.9 5.5
Thomas Robinson 69 15.2 2.0 4.6 42.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 1.6 52.3 1.8 2.8 4.5 0.6 1.2 0.6 0.4 1.8 4.8
Terrence Jones 14 11.5 1.7 4.1 41.4 0.3 0.9 30.8 0.6 0.8 81.8 1.4 1.3 2.6 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.7 4.4
James Anderson 36 10.6 1.4 3.3 41.7 0.6 1.6 35.1 0.7 0.8 85.7 0.5 1.4 1.9 1.1 0.6 0.4 0.1 0.7 4.0
Tim Ohlbrecht 3 3.7 0.3 1.0 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3 100.0 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.3 1.3 0.3 0.0 0.3 1.0


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