The Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets have revealed injury reports for tonight’s battle at Mortgage Matchup Center.
Nikola Jokic headlines Denver’s side of things, as he’s questionable with a left wrist sprain. The MVP is joined by Bruce Brown (right knee sprain) as questionable while Aaron Gordon (right hamstring strain), Christian Braun (left ankle sprain), and Julian Strawther (lower back injury management)
In Phoenix, Jalen Green (hamstring) remains out while Isaiah Livers joins him with right hip soreness.
All of Grayson Allen (quad contusion), Ryan Dunn (wrist sprain), Jordan Goodwin (left ankle sprain) and Mark Williams (right calf soreness) are questionable.
Ahead of last night’s loss to OKC, Suns coach Jordan Ott offered the following on Phoenix’s slew of injuries:
“We’re all in a good place going forward, but we’ve got to get through tonight. (Allen and Dunn) had work today, see how they come out of that and then Mark, we’re going to play the game, see what happens,” said Ott (h/t Duane Rankin).
“That’s kind of been our approach, but all of it is trending in a good direction, but we know with all these things, it can get sideways pretty quick. We’re in a good place. We know the schedule that’s coming, too. We’re again, in a three (games) in four (days). We’ll do the best we can. We have a plan. We’ll try to stay with it.”
Opening tip is slated for 7:00 PM MST.
More on Suns vs Nuggets Tonight
Denver’s 13-5 on the season entering tonight having won their previous matchup against Phoenix back in October in 133-11 fashion. They’ve won their last 10-of-13 games riding into the desert.
The Suns, meanwhile, are on the second leg of a back-to-back after playing in Oklahoma City last night. They’re 12-8 and have won their last ten-of-twelve.
Obviously, this matchup hinges on the health of Jokic – who Suns coach Jordan Ott held massive praise for ahead of their first meeting.
“He’s the playmaker. We call him the hub. Everything flows through him, but they have a lot of really good players around him,” Ott said of Jokic.
Denver is first in points per game at 124.5 entering tonight while also being top-five in team categories such as field goal percentage (50.8%), three-point percentage (38%) and free throw percentage (83.1%).
The Suns aren’t far behind, also top-five in stats such as steals per night (10.6), three-pointers made (302) and three-point percentage (37.7%).
Denver is No. 1 in offensive rating while the Suns are tenth in defensive rating.
ESPN’s analytics gives Denver a 62.6% chance to win tonight.
While the Nuggets are handling business as usual, the Suns have been quite a surprise to begin the regular season.
We’ll see if that continues.