The Suns, trying to build momentum, take on the Nuggets
THE Phoenix Suns felt they found the missing piece for a title run when they traded for Bradley Beal in the offseason, but their version of a Big Three was constantly hampered by injuries.
Despite playing in the last two games, Beal has missed 29 this season, and now fellow teammate Devin Booker is dealing with an ankle strain suffered Saturday that will keep him out for at least a week.
It’s been difficult to establish chemistry between Beal, Booker and Kevin Durant when Phoenix can’t always get all three together on the court, a situation the Suns will face Tuesday night when they visit the Denver Nuggets.
The Suns are coming off back-to-back losses, including a 118-110 setback to Oklahoma City on Sunday. Phoenix rallied from 24 points down to take a lead in the fourth quarter, only to allow the Thunder to claw back.
The result spoiled a big night for former Denver center Jusuf Nurkic, who set a Suns franchise record with 31 rebounds. He now faces his friend and former teammate Nikola Jokic, whose Nuggets are on a six-game winning streak.
For Phoenix, which is trying to secure a top-six spot in the Western Conference to avoid the play-in tournament, the urgency is growing.
“We have time, but we can’t keep saying we have time. … We only have (21) games left,” Beal said. “It’s a good number of games to really get us going and get going right before the playoffs. So, I think it’ll be really good for us, but we have to get started. We can’t keep talking about it… .We need to hit this steamroller head on.
Denver entered the All-Star break after a three-game skid, but flipped a switch when the regular season resumed. The Nuggets posted impressive road wins over the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers during their winning streak, and they put a damper on LeBron James’ historic night on Saturday, when James surpassed 40,000 career points in Denver’s 124-114 victory.
“Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but I think we get the look (in terms of clutch time),” Jokic said. “We take the photos we want to take.”
Denver beat the Lakers even though Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missed the game for personal reasons. Caldwell-Pope participated in practice Monday and will be available to play Tuesday evening.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was questionable to play against Los Angeles after injuring his right ankle against the Miami Heat on Thursday, but he had 24 points and 11 assists on Saturday and made key plays throughout the sequence. It will also be available on Tuesday.
If the Suns want to avoid losing a third straight game, they’ll need to stop more than just Jokic and Murray. Michael Porter Jr. has just had a big night during which he scored 25 points and made 10 field goal attempts, including five 3-pointers.
He also became the answer to the trivia question of who was guarding James when the NBA’s all-time leading scorer passed the 40,000-point milestone.
–Field level media
Copyright 2024 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and the Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
