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Who: Phoenix Suns @ Houston Rockets

When: Wednesday, January 20th @ 7:30pm (9:30ET), ESPN

Where: Toyota Center, Houston, TX








Phoenix Suns starting lineup:

C- Ayton

F- Cam

F- Bridges

G- Booker

G- CP3


Reserves: Crowder/Payne/Carter/Kaminsky





Houston Rockets starting lineup:


C- Woods

F- Tucker

F- Nwaba

G- Oladipo

G- Gordon


Reserves: McLemore/Cousins/Tate/Jones/Kurucs


Good luck charm!!!

I think if we don’t win this one then it’s the kinda game that’s gonna spiral us back to our old ways and we go on a rough stretch of hardly winning any games for some time.

Rockets have lost 6 of their last 8 games. This is a team that’s reeling, we gotta take advantage and beat bad teams.

Revived wrote:I think if we don’t win this one then it’s the kinda game that’s gonna spiral us back to our old ways and we go on a rough stretch of hardly winning any games for some time.

Rockets have lost 6 of their last 8 games. This is a team that’s reeling, we gotta take advantage and beat bad teams.

Unfortunately, the teams desperate for a win are ones we have struggled against, despite how good they are. And it's not like they don't have talent...they have just been in disarray. Wall, Wood, Gordon, Tucker, Oladipo and Boogie are legit.

No game is easy in the league. That's why we play on the court and not determine the outcome on piece of paper. On paper we should've destroyed teans such as Pistons and Wizards. I dont feel completely bad losing to Grizz cause they have been rolling winning their last 6 even without Morant for most of those games.

Suns will figure it out they are too talented not to and in a month our fanbase will be pretty happy with the outcomes. Just need more time folks.

bwgood77 wrote:

Revived wrote:I think if we don’t win this one then it’s the kinda game that’s gonna spiral us back to our old ways and we go on a rough stretch of hardly winning any games for some time.

Rockets have lost 6 of their last 8 games. This is a team that’s reeling, we gotta take advantage and beat bad teams.

Unfortunately, the teams desperate for a win are ones we have struggled again, despite how good they are. And it's not like they don't have talent...they have just been in disarray. Wall, Wood, Gordon, Tucker, Oladipo and Boogie are legit.

Oladipo had a huge game today.

bwgood77 wrote:

Revived wrote:I think if we don’t win this one then it’s the kinda game that’s gonna spiral us back to our old ways and we go on a rough stretch of hardly winning any games for some time.

Rockets have lost 6 of their last 8 games. This is a team that’s reeling, we gotta take advantage and beat bad teams.

Unfortunately, the teams desperate for a win are ones we have struggled again, despite how good they are. And it's not like they don't have talent...they have just been in disarray. Wall, Wood, Gordon, Tucker, Oladipo and Boogie are legit.

Suns should be desperate for a win as well, it’s not like we’ve been on some long winning streak. We have talent on this team as well CP3, Booker, Bridges, Ayton, Crowder and Johnson.

There’s just no excuses to not be winning these games. Lost against worst team in the league Detroit. Lost to Sacramento. Lost to Grizzlies with JJJ and Valaciunas out. Now a 4-7 Rockets team.

Need a statement win by like 20+ imo.

Revived wrote:

bwgood77 wrote:

Revived wrote:I think if we don’t win this one then it’s the kinda game that’s gonna spiral us back to our old ways and we go on a rough stretch of hardly winning any games for some time.

Rockets have lost 6 of their last 8 games. This is a team that’s reeling, we gotta take advantage and beat bad teams.

Unfortunately, the teams desperate for a win are ones we have struggled again, despite how good they are. And it's not like they don't have talent...they have just been in disarray. Wall, Wood, Gordon, Tucker, Oladipo and Boogie are legit.

Suns should be desperate for a win as well, it’s not like we’ve been on some long winning streak. We have talent on this team as well CP3, Booker, Bridges, Ayton, Crowder and Johnson.

There’s just no excuses to not be winning these games. Lost against worst team in the league Detroit. Lost to Sacramento. Lost to Grizzlies with Valaciunas out. Now a 4-7 Rockets team.

Need a statement win by like 20+ imo.

I'm just saying the Rockets record isn't indicative of their talent. Harden didn't much care, they had players out for COVID, yet they were playing short handed, they were missing players in games when the trade was going through, etc. Their top 6 players are probably as talented as ours. Our depth might be a little better.

Wall didn't play in today's game either.

bwgood77 wrote:

Revived wrote:

bwgood77 wrote:
Unfortunately, the teams desperate for a win are ones we have struggled again, despite how good they are. And it's not like they don't have talent...they have just been in disarray. Wall, Wood, Gordon, Tucker, Oladipo and Boogie are legit.

Suns should be desperate for a win as well, it’s not like we’ve been on some long winning streak. We have talent on this team as well CP3, Booker, Bridges, Ayton, Crowder and Johnson.

There’s just no excuses to not be winning these games. Lost against worst team in the league Detroit. Lost to Sacramento. Lost to Grizzlies with Valaciunas out. Now a 4-7 Rockets team.

Need a statement win by like 20+ imo.

I'm just saying the Rockets record isn't indicative of their talent. Harden didn't much care, they had players out for COVID, yet they were playing short handed, they were missing players in games when the trade was going through, etc. Their top 6 players are probably as talented as ours. Our depth might be a little better.

Wall didn't play in today's game either.

Every bad team has reasons for why their bad. It really doesn’t matter, the Suns have to treat this like a must win game. We need to go on a winning streak of some sort.

Starts with Booker, he can’t be wildly inefficient nor can he turn it over half a dozen times.

This is another favorable matchup for Ayton as Houston really doesn’t have any bigs that are all that good defensively. He’s gotta follow up today’s performance with another good one.

Every team is an NBA team, capable of winning on any night. Even the McD selected Suns managed to win a few games, even without Booker going for 70! You just can't look past any team.

Revived wrote:

bwgood77 wrote:

Revived wrote:Suns should be desperate for a win as well, it’s not like we’ve been on some long winning streak. We have talent on this team as well CP3, Booker, Bridges, Ayton, Crowder and Johnson.

There’s just no excuses to not be winning these games. Lost against worst team in the league Detroit. Lost to Sacramento. Lost to Grizzlies with Valaciunas out. Now a 4-7 Rockets team.

Need a statement win by like 20+ imo.

I'm just saying the Rockets record isn't indicative of their talent. Harden didn't much care, they had players out for COVID, yet they were playing short handed, they were missing players in games when the trade was going through, etc. Their top 6 players are probably as talented as ours. Our depth might be a little better.

Wall didn't play in today's game either.

Every bad team has reasons for why their bad. It really doesn’t matter, the Suns have to treat this like a must win game. We need to go on a winning streak of some sort.

Starts with Booker, he can’t be wildly inefficient nor can he turn it over half a dozen times.

This is another favorable matchup for Ayton as Houston really doesn’t have any bigs that are all that good defensively. He’s gotta follow up today’s performance with another good one.

Yes, bad teams have reasons they are bad and good teams sometimes have reasons their record is misleading. I wouldn't say Denver or Miami are terrible either based on their records. But yes, if you just look at the standings, I understand your assumption.

But this is a 4 seed from last year that may be without Harden and Westbrook now but added Wall, Oladipo (both of who look back to all star form in their Houston games) and Wood, who looks like a most improved player candidate after already looking like a good player last year. And Cousins.

We are a 34-39 team from last year who many think we downgraded our PG, Booker is playing much worse, Ayton is playing much worse, we are missing a couple bigs...

So having said all that, I don't think we should necessarily easily win this game or that Houston is a really bad team. We look like a bad team right now, having lost to the Pistons, Wizards without their starting C, and the Grizz without two bigs.

But we are capable. Booker will want to have a big game again too because it's on national tv again, as is Friday.

Wall out.

Feels like our first must win game of the season

Crives wrote:Feels like our first must win game of the season

With Wall out it helps a lot, but Oladipo can still run point...I think he had 9 assists in the last game They can still field another mostly solid starting lineup.

We've lost to worse teams.

It is more of a must win for them.

But again, although it would hurt to lose, another reminder that Paul and OKC started 8-12 last year and finished tied for 4th in the tough west by going 36-16 their last 52 games which is a 57 win pace...so it took him and team a while to have it come together and then they were really a juggernaut.

Expecting a 15+ quarter from Booker. The whole starting unit will play exceptionally well leading us to a 12 point lead after 1st. Anything beyond that is difficult to predict not even Nostradamus can pull that off with this team.

We all knew the Wiz and Memphis game should have been cancelled. League is **** us with inconsistent COVID policy. Tonight’s game would be cancelled already if it wasn’t national tv, we will hear soon

?s=21

Ayton should have the opportunity for another field day. Rockets don’t really have any bigs that should give him problems to score easily inside.

Revived wrote:Ayton should have the opportunity for another field day. Rockets don’t really have any bigs that should give him problems to score easily inside.

They have Wood and Boogie, both of who are extremely solid players. Wood blocking 1.7 shots and pulling down over 10.4 rebounds per game. Boogie may have more limited minutes but averages 2.3 blocks and 15 rebounds per 36.

Wood is a very solid defensive player with a 7'3 wingspan. RAPTOR rates him better on defense than offense and he's good on offense.