Preview: Suns Face Lakers in Primetime Slot

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns (33-24) are looking to rebound from a rough Texas road trip with a Sunday afternoon date with the Los Angeles Lakers (31-27).

The Lakers are coming into this contest playing possibly the best basketball of their 2023-24 season, resembling the team last year that reached the Western Conference Finals to an extent.

The Suns continue to struggle with the same cycle of inconsistency and only have a limited amount of time to figure things out for good.

Suns G Bradley Beal has already been ruled out for the game, while Eric Gordon was added to the injury report with a questionable designation. Jusuf Nurkic has been upgraded to probable.

Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Cam Reddish are all questionable for Los Angeles.

A storyline, key matchup and prediction:

Lakers: Turning Season around?

The Lakers were last seen under .500 on January 31 following a loss to the Atlanta Hawks the previous night.

They rebounded with a shocking victory over the Boston Celtics - a game that catapulted a 7-2 stretch that has them sitting at 31-27.

As mentioned previously, the run Los Angeles is experiencing currently is fairly similar to last season's - a rough start followed up by strong play across the final two months of the season.

The Lakers look to carry this momentum into this game, as they have won three of four contests against the Suns this season.

Key Matchup: LeBron James vs Kevin Durant

The two players have been frequently tied together over the years - and it's no different now.

Durant and James are still playing at extraordinarily high levels relative to age - both are playing at All-NBA levels at 35 and 39 years of age, respectively.

Durant remains one of if not the best scorer in the NBA and passed Carmelo Anthony for 9th all-time in scoring on Friday night against the Houston Rockets.

James remains a 25 PPG scorer as well as one of the best playmakers in basketball, even as the oldest active player in the NBA.

While Durant and James almost certainly won't be directly shadowing each other on a possession-to-possession basis, they figure to be the two most impactful players on the floor this afternoon.

Prediction: Suns Win

Third time is a charm.

The Suns return to a home crowd that has become increasingly more engaged as the season has gone on and deliver on securing a much-needed win while short-handed.

Suns-Lakers is set to tip off shortly after 1:30 Arizona time this afternoon and will be exclusively broadcast on ABC.