The Phoenix Suns play host to the Portland Trailblazers tonight at the Talking Stick Resort Arena.
The Suns have now lost four straight to start the regular season thanks to a 116-98 loss to the Clippers on Monday night. Brandon Knight stepped into the starting lineup for the injured Devin Booker and had himself a team-high 18 points, TJ Warren added 15 points while Eric Bledsoe added 12 points with five assists but the Suns just couldn’t stay in the game after going ice-cold in a 24-12 second quarter dominated by the Clippers. As a team, the Suns shot just 41.7 percent from the field but it was the 20 turnovers that really hurt them, especially because they were playing on zero days rest.
Meanwhile, the Trailblazers had won two of their first three games to start the season, but were blown away in a 127-104 home loss to the Warriors last night. Damian Lillard led from the front with a team-high 31 points, CJ McCollum chipped in with 16 points while the Trailblazers drained 14 three-pointers, but a dominant 41-20 third quarter from the Warriors sealed the game and dropped the Blazers to 2-2 on the season and 1-2 at home so far.
In ATS trends, the Blazers are 5-1 ATS in their last six road games against a team with a losing home record and 1-6 ATS in their last seven games against a team with a losing record, while the Suns are 5-1 ATS in their last six games against a team with a winning record and 4-0 ATS in their last four home games against a team with a winning road record.
Head to head, the Blazers are 5-2 ATS in the last seven meetings overall and 3-7 ATS in the last 10 meetings in Phoenix.
The Suns will be desperate to notch their first win of the season, especially because this game is at home, but I just can’t trust them while they’re still shorthanded. Instead, I’m going with the more settled Blazers unit who always seem to bounce back from big losses.