Suns Couldn't Have Asked for Better Season Opener
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There couldn't have been a more perfectly plucked opponent for the Phoenix Suns to have played in their season opener.
When the Suns take the court to begin the 2022-23 season, they'll do so in their home city of Phoenix on Oct. 19.
Those who formulate the NBA schedule know exactly what they're doing when it comes to primetime matchups, and for the first night of the season, what better opponent than the Dallas Mavericks?
It's been months since the Suns were defeated in that memorable Game 7, and although the Mavericks would quickly go out in the next round against the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors, talk of the collapse in the Dallas series has followed Phoenix to this very day.
"The Suns are painfully aware that regular-season dominance does not ensure postseason success. Nonetheless, they’ll enter this season on edge. And you should see that right out of the gate, game one, when Phoenix gets a rematch with Dallas, the team that embarrassed them in Game 7 of the conference semifinals," said NBA.com after the schedule was officially released.
The Mavericks, just like Phoenix, will look to avenge how their season crumbled short of their goal. For Dallas, it's a good opportunity to again let the western conference know they're serious contenders.
For NBA fans without a dog in the fight, the opener promises to be nothing short of entertaining.
For the Suns? It's the only way they could have asked to begin the season.
Since that Game 7 meltdown, Phoenix fans have had to endure countless memes, posts, videos, articles, etc. throwing shade at the Suns, who once held a 2-0 series lead and dipped out of the postseason in historical fashion.
Don't think Suns players and members of the organization have been excluded from that process, either.
Phoenix now has a chip on their shoulder. After consecutive years of possessing one of the best teams in basketball, the Suns still have yet to capture that elusive championship.
With a team this talented, walking away empty-handed is not an option.
General manager James Jones doubled down on that theory when Phoenix brought back Deandre Ayton on a matched four-year, $133 million offer sheet.
With Ayton, Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson (expected to grow into a larger role), the same squad who came within two games of winning the NBA Finals returns once more.
It's a long season, but winning big games early on in the season can help establish building blocks for the long haul.
What more could Phoenix ask than to defeat the Mavericks on opening night, in front of a national audience, on the same court they were previously ran off of? The atmosphere won't fall short of a similar feeling to the postseason.
In a western conference that seems to have only gotten stronger in the offseason, it almost feels as if the Suns are an afterthought when compared to Golden State, Los Angeles, Dallas, etc.
That's a strange thing to say about a team who won 64 games last season, but when you flop in the playoffs, that's bound to happen.
The Suns are once again 0-0. Nothing has been given, and every win along the way will have to be earned 48 minutes at a time. The new season is upon us, and that includes wiping away the disdain of how last year ended.
A loss on opening night won't change very much for Phoenix. It won't be the end of the world, and it won't tell us anything new about the Suns.
However, defeating Dallas would help bury some of those demons that have followed the team through the offseason, somewhat vindicating Phoenix and their obviously talented lineup.
Opening night, on paper, is just Game 1 of 82 for the regular season.
Yet for the Suns, it's an opportunity to announce themselves to the rest of the league that they're still as good as ever.
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