The Suns are heading into Wednesday night with a chance to stack wins for the first time this season, and the setup is as favorable as it gets. Phoenix is coming off a 133-110 rout of the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, and now gets a Charlotte team sitting at 4-7 and dealing with a battered rotation.
The Hornets are missing Kon Knueppel, who has a left hamstring strain, Brandon Miller with a right hip strain, and Dennis Schroder with a left hamstring strain. Phoenix’s injury list is much shorter, with Mark Williams out after left shoulder surgery. He is expected to miss the next few months after suffering a torn labrum in the offseason.
Phoenix will stick with the same starting five again, and that group has already shown some traction. The Suns are 3-1 with that lineup, though the fit around Booker still has produced some of the offensive dry spells that have cropped up throughout the season.
One place Phoenix wants more of the same is from its bench. The reserves exploded for 81 points against the Clippers, the third-most bench points in a single game in franchise history and the most since Dec. 2, 1994.
This is also the first meeting between the Suns and Hornets since the summer blockbuster that sent Miles Bridges, a least-favorable 2029 first-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick to Phoenix in exchange for Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and an unprotected 2033 first-round pick.
Allen has found a bigger scoring lane in Charlotte, where injuries have pushed him into a larger role. He is averaging 15.3 points while shooting 46.9% from 3-point range this season. Before the game, Allen said the return to Phoenix still carried weight for him.
"It's good to be back. I mean, this was a place that I was at the longest so far in my career," Allen said at shootaround earlier today (via PHNX Suns). "Probably the team or place I feel like I have the most connection to."
Allen spent three seasons with the Suns after being acquired in the trade that sent out Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara shortly before the 2023-24 season. Phoenix later added O'Neale during that same season, and both players were central pieces in the team’s turnaround last year.
Before tipoff, Suns coach Jordan Ott had nothing but praise for the pair.
"Ultimate professionals as humans and as players," Ott said. "They saw a lot before I arrived here. A lot of basketball in their careers, a lot of good basketball, a lot of wins, and they accepted us and took to us (on the) first day.
"Royce, incredible shooter. High IQ, elite end-of-game passer, and just a joy to be around every day as a person.
He was always up. There was never a down day.
"And then Grayson, we challenged him to change his game a little bit, and he absolutely took to it. Shoot tougher threes, shoot more of them, off the dribble, get downhill, play in the paint.
He was an elite offensive player that really helped us last year. So great guys on and off the court.
Couldn't speak more highly of two individuals that I've been around."
O'Neale, meanwhile, has not carried the same kind of workload in Charlotte that he had in Phoenix. Through 11 games, he is averaging 5.2 points on 35.2% shooting in 19.2 minutes per game. Still, the return meant something to him too.
"It definitely feels good to be back. Phoenix was a special place," O'Neale said at shootaround (via PHNX Suns). "I think that everything that happened here team-wise, teammates that I had, coaches, relationships with people around the arena, facility, so it's always going to be a good place for me and coming back just feels good."
Bridges will also see Charlotte from the other side for the first time since the Hornets drafted him 12th overall in 2018. He framed the night as just another game, even with the reunion element hanging over it.
"It's just another game, but I spent eight years with these guys, nine years. I'm definitely excited, but getting the W is the most important thing," Bridges said at shootaround (via The Arizona Republic's Duane Rankin).
Tipoff is set for shortly after 7 p.m. MST.
In Other News...
Hornets Let A Winnable Game Slip Away For One Frustrating Reason
The Hornets had enough going for them in Phoenix to make this one feel winnable for long stretches. They rebounded well, shot the 3-ball effectively and took care of business at the line, the kind of ingredients that usually give a young team a chance on the road. Even with injuries forcing lineup shuffling, there were encouraging signs from the supporting cast and a promising look from Coby White before his night was kept in check.
What ultimately undid Charlotte was the part of the game that tends to travel the worst for a team still learning how to close. The ball kept slipping away at the wrong times, and the late-game execution never settled in enough to protect the lead it had built. For a Hornets group trying to patch together a rotation and find some consistency, the frustration was less about effort than about a familiar, self-inflicted problem that turned a manageable night into another missed opportunity. [Read more 🡒]
Grayson Allen Returns To Phoenix With Something To Prove
Grayson Allens return to Phoenix carries a little extra weight for the Hornets, even if the season has already moved on from the offseason trade that brought him to Charlotte. Allen left behind a memorable run with the Suns, including a career night when he poured in 42 points and came close to the franchise mark for made 3-pointers in a game, and he has since settled into a valuable veteran role for a Charlotte team trying to steady itself through injuries.
For the Hornets, Allens presence has mattered beyond the box score because he has brought experience and consistency to a roster that has needed both. The reunion also adds a layer of intrigue for Charlotte, since Allen was appreciative of his time in Phoenix and now gets a chance to remind his old team what it gave up, even if the full story of that move still hangs over the matchup. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Fans Have A Real Naz Reid Question To Watch
Naz Reids name has already started to surface in trade chatter as Charlotte tries to steady itself after a slow start, and that alone is enough to make this a storyline worth watching. The big man was brought in during the offseason deal that sent LaMelo Ball out, so his presence was supposed to be part of the next phase for the roster, not an early-season question mark.
Still, the longer the Hornets hover near the bottom of the standings, the more attention Reid is likely to draw from around the league. His contract gives Charlotte flexibility, but it also gives rival teams a reason to keep tabs on him, especially if the Hornets decide they need to reshape the roster rather than wait for the season to turn. [Read more 🡒]