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Who: Phoenix Suns @ Indiana Pacers

When: Friday, January 14th @ 5:00pm (7:00ET) l BSAZ

Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN








Phoenix Suns starting lineup:


C- Ayton

F- Crowder

F- Bridges

G- Booker

G- CP3



Reserves: Cam/Payne/Mcgee/Shamet/Payton






Indiana Pacers starting lineup:


C- Sabonis

F- Turner

F- J. G- LeVert

G- Holiday

G- Washington



Reserves: Craig/Brissett/Stephenson/Bitadze

Ayton usually gets overwhelmed by the duo of Sabonis and Turner when Ayton only has Crowder as his front court help. But I think Monty will go big early here and get Smith in to cover Turner and leave Ayton on Sabonis. Suns bigs can get aggressive defensively as they have the depth.... Brogdon needs to be contained though.

They have a better starting lineup than a lot of teams - Brogdon, Holiday, Lavert, Sabonis, Turner

Expecting another gritty eastern conference away game.

Mulhollanddrive wrote:They have a better starting lineup than a lot of teams - Brogdon, Holiday, Lavert, Sabonis, Turner

Expecting another gritty eastern conference away games.

Their starting lineup should be winning near 50 games a season at least around that number. Very puzzling how badly they've struggled. Obviously they are missing Warren maybe other players have missed a ton of games but no way should Pacers be 15 games under .500 at this point. I guess the coach/management failed this team and guys like Brogdan, Sabonis & McConnell deserve better. Might be seeing a clean house during the trade deadline.

SunsRback4Good wrote:

Mulhollanddrive wrote:They have a better starting lineup than a lot of teams - Brogdon, Holiday, Lavert, Sabonis, Turner

Expecting another gritty eastern conference away games.

Their starting lineup should be winning near 50 games a season at least around that number. Very puzzling how badly they've struggled. Obviously they are missing Warren maybe other players have missed a ton of games but no way should Pacers be 15 games under .500 at this point. I guess the coach/management failed this team and guys like Brogdan, Sabonis & McConnell deserve better. Might be seeing a clean house during the trade deadline.

They can't shoot. Oshae Brisset is their best 3pt shooter at 37%.

If this was 1996, they'd be a dominant playoff team for sure. But it's not.

Barkley6 wrote:

SunsRback4Good wrote:

Mulhollanddrive wrote:They have a better starting lineup than a lot of teams - Brogdon, Holiday, Lavert, Sabonis, Turner

Expecting another gritty eastern conference away games.

Their starting lineup should be winning near 50 games a season at least around that number. Very puzzling how badly they've struggled. Obviously they are missing Warren maybe other players have missed a ton of games but no way should Pacers be 15 games under .500 at this point. I guess the coach/management failed this team and guys like Brogdan, Sabonis & McConnell deserve better. Might be seeing a clean house during the trade deadline.

They can't shoot. Oshae Brisset is their best 3pt shooter at 37%.

If this was 1996, they'd be a dominant playoff team for sure. But it's not.

That's tough if you cannot shoot in today's league your team will struggle mightily. But they can't defend either ranked 21st in the league. Looking at their team stats their best stat is offensive rebounding at 10th in league. We just played a team who killed us on the glass let's pray it's not a repeat.

oh look another great offensive rebounding team. this will be good.

spanishninja wrote:oh look another great offensive rebounding team. this will be good.

Still a far bigger margin than the Raptors who are 1st in Offensive reb. Need to box out Turner and Sabonis. Also, expect Turner to have 5-6 blocks a game. He leads league with 2.8.

SunsRback4Good wrote:

spanishninja wrote:oh look another great offensive rebounding team. this will be good.

Still a far bigger margin than the Raptors who are 1st in Offensive reb. Need to box out Turner and Sabonis. Also, expect Turner to have 5-6 blocks a game. He leads league with 2.8.

I was being sarcastic! we will get rocked inside for sure.

spanishninja wrote:

SunsRback4Good wrote:

spanishninja wrote:oh look another great offensive rebounding team. this will be good.

Still a far bigger margin than the Raptors who are 1st in Offensive reb. Need to box out Turner and Sabonis. Also, expect Turner to have 5-6 blocks a game. He leads league with 2.8.

I was being sarcastic! we will get rocked inside for sure.

I'm hoping that after the Toronto outing we make some adjustments on the glass.

?s=20

Not sure what additional COVID testing means. If he's out due to Health and Safety protocols, we're gonna have a rough time for the next few weeks

matt131 wrote:

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Not sure what additional COVID testing means. If he's out due to Health and Safety protocols, we're gonna have a rough time for the next few weeks

We are build to sustain any serious injury and still make the finals. The key is Monty as long as he stays the Suns aren't fading.

I'm not sure we can win a championship unless Cam Payne steps up, doing the same thing is getting the same results so this could be a good circuit breaker to play with the starters.

Payne, Booker, Bridges, Crowder, Ayton
Payton, Shamet, Jackson, Smith, McGee

Assume Paul, Johnson out.

Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) Tweeted:
No Chris Paul on the Suns' injury report for tomorrow against the Pacers.

Cam Johnson is questionable for that left ankle sprain that kept him out of Tuesday's win in Toronto.

Ish Wainright is now out of the health and safety protocols. He's questionable for conditioning. ?s=20

Win to go 2 games clear at the half way mark.

Possibly at full strength for this one?

Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) Tweeted:
UPDATED: Chris Paul available for #Suns-#Pacers Friday after not being at Thursday's practice for additional COVID-19 testing; Cam Johnson (ankle), Ish Wainright (reconditioning) questionable, 10-day Justin Jackson (personal) back with team https://t.co/yAlPfBmgju via @azcentral https://t.co/B74SAGdShJ ?s=20

Indiana has a good roster. I don't get their record

RaisingArizona wrote:Indiana has a good roster. I don't get their record

Probably mostly mental and emotional disconnect due to all the trade talk, injuries, etc.

Ghost of Kleine wrote:Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) Tweeted:
UPDATED: Chris Paul available for #Suns-#Pacers Friday after not being at Thursday's practice for additional COVID-19 testing; Cam Johnson (ankle), Ish Wainright (reconditioning) questionable, 10-day Justin Jackson (personal) back with team https://t.co/yAlPfBmgju via @azcentral https://t.co/B74SAGdShJ

Read on Twitter

?s=20

that's great news because now that CP is clear, there will be no more risk of daily covid tests putting people on the shelf. looks like the league is gonna yoloing it going forward...



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RaisingArizona wrote:Indiana has a good roster. I don't get their record

Their a bad matchup for us because their one of those teams that start a good PF which hurts us in the paint and on the boards.

Sabonis seemingly always KILLS us.

Wouldn’t mind if Monty tried starting 2 bigs for this one just to try and counter that for a bit.