Suns Host Rockets for First of Two Meetings
PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns (34-24) are set to face the Houston Rockets (25-33) for the first of two consecutive games tonight at Footprint Center.
The Rockets come into this game reeling - the win over Phoenix on Feb. 23 is their only win in their last five games, while Phoenix is coming off of a nice rebound victory over the Los Angeles Lakers this past Sunday.
Bradley Beal and Eric Gordon come into the day carrying questionable designations, while Tari Eason remains out for Houston.
Three things to watch going into tonight:
Suns: Looking to Continue Home Dominance
The Suns are looking to move to 20-11 at home on the season with a victory tonight.
A win over the Rockets would extend the home win streak to nine games - Phoenix hasn't lost a home game since Jan. 7 at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies.
The win streak has seemingly coincided with a more noticeably energized home crowd - here's to hoping the continued improvement at home continues going forward.
Standings Watch: Suns Continue to Eye Climb
The Suns can only control what's in front of them in pursuit of higher seeding in the imminent playoff run, and it's hard to envision not keeping up on how teams around them are doing as well.
Three teams in the ballpark of the Suns standings-wise play tonight - the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, and Los Angeles Lakers.
The Suns trail Oklahoma City by seven games, so the chances of catching them are slim as it is, but OKC also draws the lowly San Antonio Spurs.
The Nuggets are coming off of a win against the Sacramento Kings last night but are thrown into a back-to-back scenario with the red-hot Miami Heat.
The Suns only trail Denver by five and a half games as of tonight - a Nuggets loss/Suns win will make for an interesting next week - especially since the two teams are set to play this coming Tuesday.
The Lakers trail the Suns by three and a half games while also drawing the Washington Wizards - so the Suns need to win to keep the same amount of separation between the two.
Key Matchup: Ime Udoka vs Frank Vogel
The obvious matchup may once again be the Suns' interior attack against Alperen Sengun, but we're going with the matchup of two great tacticians to avoid redundancy.
Ime Udoka has overseen a culture change in Houston - the Rockets had one of the worst three-year stretches of any NBA franchise in recent memory.
Frank Vogel is a former NBA title-winning head coach that was hired by the Suns to bring a different approach to a team that had flatlined for around a year to the point of last summer.
The Rockets have proven to be a difficult matchup for the Suns regardless of roster quality - this could very well be a game that is decided by decisions made by the respective teams' head coaches.
Suns-Rockets is set to tip off at approximately 7:10 PM Arizona time tonight.
