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What: Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Clippers
When: 8:30 PM AZ time
Where: La La Land, at Staples Center
Watch: Fox Sports Arizona
Listen: 98.7 FM
New point guard Isaiah Canaan leads the ragtag Suns against the roly-poly Clippers in a match-up of “my team’s more injured than YOUR team!” in LaLa Land tonight.
Could the Phoenix Suns leave LA with a three-game winning streak on their hands?
After beating the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks, the Suns come to LA with a two-game winning streak on the line. The Clippers — down most of their roster to injury — have lost three straight and 7 of 10.
Injury Report
Clippers
- Patrick Beverley (OUT for season, Amare knee)
- Danilo Gallinari (OUT indefinitely, “buttocks”)
- Blake Griffin (OUT for months, knee sprain)
- Wesley Johnson (day-day-day, foot pain)
- Lou Williams (day-to-day, ankle)
Suns
- Devin Booker (OUT till after Christmas, groin)
- Davon Reed (OUT till New Years, knee)
- Alan Williams (OUT till after All-Star break, knee)
- Brandon Knight (OUT till... ever, knee)
- Troy Daniels (day-to-day, face bruise)
- Tyler Ulis (day-to-day, did you see that finger?)
- Tyson Chandler (day-to-day, old)
- Greg Monroe (day-to-day, unnecessary)
- Alex Len (day-to-day, because rotations?)
Likely Starters
Clippers: Milos Teodosic, Austin Rivers, C.J. Williams, Jamil Wilson, DeAndre Jordan
Suns: Isaiah Canaan (deserves it), Josh Jackson (draft status), T.J. Warren, Dragan Bender (because I can hope), Alex Len (isn’t it his turn?)
Cliff’s Notes
Clippers: Oh my. And you thought the Suns had it bad. They still have DeAndre Jordan in the middle, but it’s chaos around him. Chris Paul is gone. His replacement is out for the year. Blake is hurt. Again. Austin Rivers is their second best player right now (thanks Dad!). I don’t know what else to say about these guys, except that I don’t recognize most anyone on their roster. At least Milos Teodosic can make pretty passes.
Suns: Your Suns have found a way to win two road games ugly, thanks mostly to the surprise contributions of Isaiah Canaan, who is the first bench player in Suns history to start his Suns career with a pair of 15/5 games. Who is this guy?!? He wears Eric Bledsoe’s number and doesn’t look all that different from Bled actually. Let’s see how far this goes
Playing Great
Clippers: DeAndre Jordan and Milos Teodosic are likely going to be the most interesting players you’ll see tonight. Milos will make a few passes you haven’t seen someone in Suns colors make since Nash left. Jordan will be bigger than anyone else on the court, and will gobble up rebounds like a vacuum.
Suns: Besides the Canaanball (averaging 16 and 5.5 in two games), young center Alex Len has been a man on fire lately. Despite coming off the bench all year, he’s averaging career highs across the board — nearly a double-double in barely over 20 minutes a game. But all that gets him is that you’ll likely see more of Chandler and Monroe than Len tonight. /shrug
Prediction
Who knows what will happen? The Suns have logged a gazillion miles on this road trip, so they might be tired.
The Clippers are riding a three-game losing streak, so they’re desperate to win a game. I’m guessing they win this one handily in front of their home crowd while the Suns look forward to getting back to the Valley and off the road.
What say you, Bright Siders?