After splitting their opening two games, the Phoenix Suns now face their toughest task of the new season as they head to Oklahoma City for a date with the Thunder. Devin Booker excelled with 43 points on 17-for-25 shooting in the win over the Warriors, ball movement was the key as the Suns dished out 33 assists as a team. That’ll be the recipe for success on Monday as well, on paper the Suns are the inferior team here. They did win 2 of the 3 most recent meetings, however the last one was towards the end of last year where it was mostly reserves playing on both rosters.
Sunday’s Thunder game vs the Clippers made headlines for all the wrong reasons as Jaylin Williams suffered a gruesome leg injury. SGA and co. did stay undefeated with a 108-101 win, but you have to wonder what kind of effect will this have on the team’s psyche moving forward. From a depth standpoint OKC can probably make up for his absence, but there is no doubt they’ll feel the absence of their 2nd best player later on in the season as well as the postseason. We’re also still waiting on Chet Holmgren to have his breakout game, so far in the 3 outings he’s had we’ve seen him score just 14, 12 and 10 points.
There’s no doubt in my mind the Suns will look to run here. If we look at just the starting line-up, they have the firepower to hang with the Thunder. I’m particularly encouraged after seeing Booker go off in the win over Golden State, he’s scored 20+ in 3 straight regular season meetings. It might take the Thunder a while to adjust to life without Jaylin Williams, following yesterday’s game they have less than 24 hours to come up with a completely different gameplan here. I’ll take my chances with the more rested Suns.
Suns vs Thunder Predictions: Suns +9.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
