The Suns begin a three-game road trip on Monday night with a stop in Los Angeles to take on the Clippers.
It will be the season’s second meeting between the two teams after the Clippers won, 131-122, in Phoenix last Wednesday.
Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal missed their team’s loss to the Clippers last week, but the Suns are expected to be at near-full strength Monday night. Durant (hamstring), who played 36 minutes on Sunday, and Eric Gordon, who missed the game completely, are listed as probable.
Los Angeles will be at full strength as the Big 3 – Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden –are all available to play.
Both teams are coming off losses on Sunday night. In this preview, I’ll share why the Suns might be the better team to back on short rest.
Suns analysis
Phoenix landed its third superstar during the offseason when it acquired Beal via trade with Washington. Unfortunately, back and ankle injuries have limited him to just 12 games this season.
Consequently, Beal is still learning to play alongside fellow superstars Durant and Devin Booker. Yet, the Suns are 19-17, just 3.5 games behind the division-leading Clippers.
The Pacific Division is the most competitive in the entire NBA, with the last-placed Warriors 5.5 games out of first place. Thus, there should be plenty of jockeying for position down the stretch of the regular season.
Having all their stars available is crucial for the Suns because they will likely need to lean on their offense to have any meaningful success.
There’s no question that you need some good fortune along the way, but that has been in short supply for Phoenix in the first half of the season. The Suns rank 27th in TeamRankings’ luck ratings. At some point, the luck factor should start to even out with the Suns climbing up the standings.
Clippers analysis
The Clippers produced a relatively flat performance against the Lakers on Sunday night. Leonard finished with just 15 points in 35 minutes of action. It was a poor showing for Leonard, who maxed out his minutes restriction on the first night of a back-to-back.
If that’s how he’d look on the first night, I’m not sure I want to be around for the encore.
While every team wants to avoid a losing streak, I don’t sense any added motivation for the Clippers in this game. In comparison, the Suns desperately need to improve their 3-6 mark in divisional games.
Betting on the NBA?
It’ll be interesting to see if the Clippers will rest any of their starters on Monday, despite none appearing on the team’s injury report. I can’t see the Suns doing the same, given that they haven’t been able to field a consistent starting lineup for much of the season.
This handicap is reasonably straightforward as it simply boils down to the availability of the players.
However, one more essential piece of information remains to give me further confidence in backing the Suns.
Suns vs. Clippers pick
You always want to be aware of scheduling spots when teams play on consecutive nights. According to our Action Labs database, the Suns are 3-2 this season against the spread in this spot while the Clippers are 2-3.
Over the past four seasons, the Suns are 10-3 against the spread when playing on a back-to-back and coming off a loss.
Moreover, when the Suns are on the road in this spot, they’re on a 6-0 ATS run. Phoenix has performed better on the road (8-6) vs. at home (11-11) this season.
The Suns are likely to handle this back-to-back, and an outright win wouldn’t surprise me. At BetMGM, you can grab the Suns at +6.5 to keep this game inside the number.
Pick: Suns +6.5 (BetMGM)
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