Phoenix's season has gone the other way. The Suns started 4-6, which brought back the usual Devin Booker trade noise, and the front office shut it down again. Since then they've won 2 straight to get back to 5-6. Booker had 30 in the 117-104 win over Orlando and scored 9 straight Phoenix points in the 4th quarter to beat Kevin Durant and Houston 102-99. It still isn't a contender's résumé, but the Suns finally look like a team with an identity.
There's one big caveat on that form. All 5 of those games were at home, and Phoenix gets a 6th straight one on Sunday at 2:00 PM MT. The Suns are 4-1 in that stretch. The loss was ugly, a 122-96 beating from San Antonio, followed by a 133-110 win over the Clippers. Their latest win was harder work than it should have been. Short-handed Charlotte, playing without Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and Dennis Schroder, led 76-72 after 3 before Phoenix won the 4th quarter 29-20. That kind of slow start won't hold up against a Lakers team that has been winning comebacks of its own.
Phoenix is still without center Mark Williams, who had surgery on a torn left labrum and is out for an extended stretch. That leaves the Suns thin in the middle against a Lakers offense run by a guard who knows how to punish a short rotation from the high post.
This game comes down to Reaves's imaging and Booker's 4th quarters. If Reaves sits, the Lakers lean even harder on a star coming off an ankle tweak, which gives Phoenix the best chance it will get to steal one. If he plays, the Suns are a .500 team trying to keep up with the West's best record. Their recent closing gives them a shot, but they'll need more than 1 good quarter.
