The Phoenix Suns are massive underdogs to the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, as the Thunder are 14-point favorites to bring home the win and officially stamp themselves as group winners in NBA Cup play.
The Suns, hoping to pull the upset off, will roll with the following starting lineup tonight:
Suns’ Starters vs Thunder
- Devin Booker
- Collin Gillespie
- Dillon Brooks
- Royce O’Neale
- Mark Williams
The Suns have been hit with a handful of injuries entering this stretch of games, as all of Jalen Green, Grayson Allen and Ryan Dunn have missed the last few matchups. They’re all not dressed tonight.
Isaiah Livers was a late add to the injury report and was also ruled out ahead of game time.
For Oklahoma City, they’ll be getting back Jalen Williams for his season debut after recovering from wrist surgery.
Phoenix head coach Jordan Ott says all of their injuries are trending in the right direction (h/t The Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin).
“We’re all in a good place going forward, but we’ve got to get through tonight. (Allen and Dunn) had work today, see how they come out of that and then Mark, we’re going to play the game, see what happens,” Ott said.
“That’s kind of been our approach, but all of it is trending in a good direction, but we know with all these things, it can get sideways pretty quick. We’re in a good place. We know the schedule that’s coming, too. We’re again, in a three (games) in four (days). We’ll do the best we can. We have a plan. We’ll try to stay with it.”
Final NBA Cup Group Game
It’s a massive NBA Cup matchup, as the winner will officially punch their ticket to the knockout stages.
If the Suns do lose tonight, it’s still likely they get in thanks to tie-breakers as explained by our Brendan Mau:
“The Grizzles and Clippers square off tonight, so one of these teams will be tied with the loser of the Suns-Thunder matchup for the wild-card spot with a 3-1 record.
“If the Suns lose tonight, the only way they are eliminated is if the Grizzlies and Clippers surpass their point differential total with Memphis seeming much more likely to do so because of their plus-9 point differential compared to Phoenix’s plus-35 differential.”
You can read the entire breakdown here.
Opening tip is slated for just past 7:30 PM MST.
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