Suns Reveal Starters vs Clippers

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PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns will be down Devin Booker and Jalen Green due to injury for yet another game when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers tonight.
The Suns (30-19) have still been rolling even with the injuries to their two biggest stars, as they enter tonight on a three-game win streak and just picked up back-to-back blowout wins over two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference in the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons.
The Clippers (22-25), who have gone 16-4 in their last 20 games, announced earlier today that James Harden would be out tonight due to personal reasons.
This will be the first time the Suns play a Western Conference foe since Jan. 7 after a 12-game streak of only playing Eastern Conference opponents.
The Suns and Clippers squared off three times in the first three weeks of the season, but have not met since as Phoenix enters this last matchup between the teams with a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over L.A. on the year.
Suns' Starters vs Clippers
The Suns will roll with the same starting lineup they had the past two games:
- Collin Gillespie
- Grayson Allen
- Dillon Brooks
- Royce O'Neale
- Mark Williams
Phoenix has gone 3-4 this season when starting this group.
Suns Preview Clippers
Although Harden is out, the Suns will be going up against a completely different Clippers team than they saw earlier in the season.
Suns coach Jordan Ott spoke pregame on what he has seen change for L.A. from the beginning of the year.
"Shot making, they're obviously shooting it at a really high clip," Ott said. "I think their turnovers have come down. So offensively, their top-five offense in the last 20 games since before Christmas, and then defensively, the activity, whether that's some of the new rotation pieces they have or just in general, they're just much more aggressive, forcing turnovers.
"Their close out defense on the three-point line, they do it about as well as anyone in the league. How they close out and how they try to impact shots on the perimeter. They're big, you're going to have to move them, you have to get them in transition. Hopefully we can get them on the glass a little bit. They're really good defensive team, just like they were last year.
"Just feels like their aggressiveness is up, but it's been such a long time, and there's a period of time in there even before they started to take off that we didn't play them. A lot of that's by the stats, but you can feel it when you watch them, how aggressive they are really defensively. Then offensively, (John) Collins is obviously shooting the ball incredibly well and Kawhi (Leonard) and James Harden, are Kawhi and James Harden.”
Leonard, who was not selected as an All-Star reserve today, is leading the Clippers with a career-high 27.7 points per game on .496/.395/.936 splits to go along with 6.1 rebounds and a league-leading 2.1 steals in 33 minutes per game.
Tonight's game is scheduled to tip off shortly after 6:00 p.m. MST.
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Brendan Mau is a staff writer for Suns on SI. Brendan has been a credentialed media member covering the Suns since 2023 and holds a bachelor’s degree in sports journalism from Arizona State’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Follow Brendan on X @Brendan_Mau for more news, updates, analysis and more!