Suns Reveal Starting Lineup for Primetime Battle vs Nuggets

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns stopped a five-game losing streak in their last time out on the court, though tonight's contest against the Denver Nuggets presents a different challenge.

Phoenix has lost both prior matchups to Denver this season and are clinging on to any sliver of hope to make the play-in tournament.

That would have to start with a win tonight on national television (NBC/Peacock).

Here's the starting lineup Suns head coach Jordan Ott is banking on during their nationally televised outing:

Suns' Starters vs Nuggets

Devin Booker
Jalen Green
Collin Gillespie
Royce O'Neale
Oso Ighodaro

Jordan Ott on How to Defend Nuggets

"I think early in the season, we touched on that we got hit pretty bad with our off-ball stuff in game one. And then they adjust over the time at the end of the game, it's going to come down to some pick-and-roll between those two (Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray). So best we can, we'll put a lot of ball pressure. That's what we do every single night. Put a lot of pressure on the passer, he's unique, where he's so crafty. If you overplay or you get too aggressive, he would draw fouls or get by you.

"But a lot of it is off the ball. Now, with (Aaron) Gordon in there, who's so good against mismatches, and we have some small guards. So that's some of the things that we've been thinking about. How we try to keep some of those matchups at times, apply a lot of pressure without overplaying. That's why they've won so many games, it's tough. They have one of the best players in the world, try to limit them the best we can, but it's hard to slow down their offense. We got to score on the other end to make them work on both sides.”

How Phoenix Can Attack Denver Offensively

"Yeah, I think these guys are super solid defensively, and they are a heavy shift team. So, we got to move, it's the same thing with some of these teams that have great size. We got to move bodies. Hopefully our kind of movement patterns are a little bit different. We can put them in some scenarios that we play out of concepts, instead of just play based, so that we can move them around. But (Nikola) Jokic, as a pick-and-roll defender is as unique as you see. I feel like he has the ability to call out different coverages as the game goes on," Ott continued.

"So, it's hard to get a rhythm on him. Specifically, what they do is do a great job of shifting off the basketball so with our shooting, hope that we can move them, get some shooting out there on the perimeter which they give up, if they give up the three-point line, got to be able to shoot it and let it go. But we can't get to them in transition over gotta run. Gotta run. They're going to run us. We got to run them."

Opening tip is slated for just past 8:00 PM AZ time.