The Portland Trail Blazers head into Phoenix looking to keep a good thing going. They already handled the Suns once this season, and since that first meeting, Portland has won five of six. The Suns, meanwhile, are still searching for answers after opening the year with just one win in their first five games and then dropping three straight to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors.
That rough stretch is the backdrop for this rematch, and it’s hard to ignore how far Phoenix has slipped. To get a better read on where things stand, we spoke with Phoenix Suns On SI publisher Donnie Druin, who pointed to a team that has been uneven from the start.
“A ton of losing and inconsistent play, to be honest. Their lone win of the year came against a massively depleted Warriors team, and that was even a massive struggle as Phoenix had to fight and claw their way to a victory. The Suns are currently nowhere close to the team they were last season, and there's more questions than answers at this point in time.”
The problems run deeper than the record. Druin said the biggest issue has been on the defensive end, where the Suns have been hurt by a drop in talent and a lack of rebounding. That has opened the door to too many second-chance looks, something Jordan Ott’s group has not been able to clean up.
He also said the bigger picture is about effort and identity, or the lack of both.
“Probably their lack of hustle and identity. That was a calling card for Ott's iteration of Suns basketball last season.
Now, that looks invisible. Phoenix isn't matching energy and instead have been bystanders to teams bringing physicality on a nightly basis.
It's truly been eye-opening to see.”
For Phoenix to make this one competitive, Druin said the Suns would need their best showing of the season and would also need Lillard to have an off night. Even then, the matchup looks uphill if Portland controls the paint. The Suns do have a path, though: they’d need to win the battle on the perimeter from start to finish.
Tip-off is set for 6 pm PT at Footprint Center in Phoenix. Fans can watch on Rip City Sports Network or stream the game on NBA League Pass.
In Other News...
Suns Just Saw Why The Magic Are Already In Trouble
Orlandos rough opening to the 2026-27 season has been hard to miss, and the recent loss to the Suns only sharpened the concerns around a team trying to find its footing without Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs. The Magic have stumbled to a 2-6 start, and the issues have been familiar from night to night: too many turnovers, shaky ball control and an offense that has had trouble generating steady scoring when its top options are unavailable.
For Phoenix, the matchup offered a clear look at why the Magic are already under pressure to stabilize things quickly. The shot-making has not been there at a high enough level, especially from 3-point range, and the absence of Banchero and Suggs has left Orlando searching for answers it has not yet found. Until the Magic clean up the mistakes and get more consistent production back in the lineup, the early-season hole is only going to feel deeper. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Are Already Searching For Answers After This Brutal Start
The Suns are already tinkering with the pieces around their rough start, and the latest adjustment came before the matchup with Orlando when they swapped Khaman Maluach out of the first unit and moved Oso Ighodaro into the starting center spot. It is the kind of early-season change that signals urgency without quite tipping into panic, especially for a team still trying to settle on a workable rotation and find some stability around its core.
Jordan Ott also said rookie forward Koa Peat is close to cracking the rotation, another sign that Phoenix is looking inward for answers before reaching for something bigger. Jordan Goodwin and Rasheer Fleming are still sidelined but day-to-day, while Suns analyst Gerald Bourguet has already floated point guard trade ideas if the skid continues, though he would rather see the team exhaust its internal fixes first. [Read more 🡒]
Devin Booker Looked Like Himself In A Suns Win That Solved Nothing
Devin Booker looked like himself again in a Suns win that at least offered a familiar sight in an uneven start to the season. Phoenix beat the Orlando Magic 117-104 on the final stop of Orlandos four-game West Coast trip, with Booker leading the way with 28 points, eight assists and three steals while shooting 50 percent from the field.
Even so, the result did not exactly answer every question around this team. Orlandos 25 turnovers gave Phoenix plenty of easy offense, but the Magic also controlled the glass with 15 offensive rebounds and 15 second-chance points, a reminder that the Suns still have issues to sort through even when Booker is carrying the scoring load. [Read more 🡒]