The Suns are trying to shake off a rough night and get back on track as their seven-game homestand continues against the Clippers.
Phoenix comes in at 3-6 after getting thumped 122-96 by the Spurs on Monday, while Los Angeles sits at 2-7. Neither team has found much traction early, and the numbers back that up: the Suns own a worse net rating (-8.1) than the Clippers (-3.7), even though L.A. had dropped seven straight before beating the Pelicans on Sunday night.
Phoenix will have one important piece back in the mix. Jordan Goodwin is set to return after missing three games with a calf injury, leaving Mark Williams, who is recovering from left shoulder surgery, as the only player out for the Suns.
“His energy, his defensive presence. Offensively, he continues to grow,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said of getting Goodwin back.
“I think he’s had a great start to the season offensively, being great in the paint when he gets there, and then the 3-point shooting piece. He’s really developed into a really good 3-point shooter.
So good to have him back.”
The Clippers will be missing Brandon Ingram, former Sun Bradley Beal, Yanic Konan Niederhauser, Cam Christie and Jordan Miller.
Phoenix is also expected to roll with the same starting five it has used over the last three games. That group has gone 2-1, with wins over the Magic and Rockets before the loss to San Antonio.
Even with that success, there are still questions about how the pieces fit together, particularly with Green taking on more of a playmaking load than he has handled well so far.
Ott said the Suns need to set the tone defensively if they want to respond the right way after the Spurs game.
“It always starts with our defense. Every night’s a new challenge,” Ott said.
“Tonight, it’s an incredibly quick guard (Darius Garland), and then a shooting 5-man (Brook Lopez). So that’s a little bit of a different challenge for us defensively.
Their second unit really moved the ball the other night against the Pelicans, so it’s kind of a change of pace type of group. We need to have our defensive intent ready from the get-go.”
Tipoff is set for shortly after 7 p.m. MST.
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