{"id":543473,"date":"2026-01-17T21:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/543473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T21:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:04:24","slug":"game-preview-suns-face-the-knicks-in-the-worlds-most-famous-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/543473\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Suns Face the Knicks in the World\u2019s Most Famous Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who: Phoenix Suns (24-17) @ New York Knicks (25-16)<\/p>\n

When: 5:30pm Arizona Time<\/p>\n

Where: Madison Square Garden \u2014 New York, New York<\/p>\n

Watch: NBA TV, Arizona\u2019s Family 3TV, Arizona\u2019s Family Sports<\/p>\n

The Phoenix Suns have their first losing streak of 2026 and their first in over a month. Losses to the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons, the Suns had a chance to win the first two games of their six-game road trip, but too many free throws and couldn\u2019t execute in clutch time to get the wins.<\/p>\n

The good thing for the Suns? Help might be on the way.<\/p>\n

Devin Booker, who missed the team\u2019s last game with an ankle injury that he suffered against the Heat, could return to action tonight. Booker has had major success against the Knicks the past couple of seasons, especially at Madison Square Garden. Last season, he had a 40-point outing, and in the 2023-24 campaign, he hit a game-winning three late.<\/p>\n

Just like the Suns, the New York Knicks head into this matchup on a losing streak. They\u2019re also on a two-game losing streak and are 2-7 in their last nine outings. Previously, they had won 11 out of 1,3 including their win in the Cup Championship. Tonight is the Knicks\u2019 first home game in more than a week. They started their road trip against the Suns, losing 112-107.<\/a><\/p>\n

Can the Suns get back on track against a struggling New York team?<\/p>\n

Projected Starting Lineup<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Devin Booker \u2014 QUESTIONABLE (Right Ankle Sprain)Jamaree Bouyea \u2014 OUT (Concussion Protocol)Jordan Goodwin \u2014 AVAILABLE (Jaw Sprain)Jalen Green \u2014 (Right Hamstring Sprain)Jalen Brunson \u2014 QUESTIONABLE (Right Ankle Sprain)Trey Jemison \u2014 OUT (G-League)<\/p>\n

In his last five games against the Knicks, Booker is averaging 32 points and seven assists. Throughout his career, he\u2019s averaged 28.6 points per game against New York. Assuming he plays, does Booker continue his streak of historically strong play against them?<\/p>\n

When the two teams faced off in Phoenix last week, Booker scored 31 points, hit four threes and dished in eight assists. Down the stretch of the game, he made numerous big plays to help the Suns secure the win.<\/p>\n

After a rough few games getting his legs under him returning from injury, Grayson Allen is playing similarly to how he was at the start of the season when he was the team\u2019s second-leading scorer. Allen scored 30 points for the second time this season in Thursday\u2019s loss to Detroit, going for 33 points, seven threes, and three blocks. After recording three triples and three swats in the first quarter, Allen became the first Sun to ever record such a stat line in a single quarter.<\/p>\n

Allen has more points in his last two games, 58, than he did in his previous four games, 41. Does Allen keep his strong scoring going?<\/p>\n

No matter the opponent, the Suns need to shoot better from the free-throw line than they did against the Pistons. Going 16\/25 from the line, one of the main reasons the Suns were in the game down the stretch was because Detroit actually shot a worse percentage from the charity stripe. In the Knicks and Suns\u2019 first matchup of the season, Phoenix executed down the stretch at the line, hitting all six of their attempts in the final 15 seconds to ice the game. The Suns need to get back to knocking down their free throws at a high rate to keep them in games and secure victories.<\/p>\n

If Devin Booker doesn\u2019t play, the Suns need to decide who is going to step up as the primary scorer. Last game it was Allen and Collin Gillespie with Dillon Brooks in foul trouble. Despite his injury and availability status progressing in the right direction, Jalen Green remains out. Who will step up if Booker is not able to go.<\/p>\n

New York has been struggling and just made a cross-country flight to get back to the East Coast. The Suns look like the healthier and better team right now. Give me Phoenix in a close one as long as Booker plays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who: Phoenix Suns (24-17) @ New York Knicks (25-16) When: 5:30pm Arizona Time Where: Madison Square Garden \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,30667],"class_list":{"0":"post-543473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks","15":"tag-suns-game-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115912473355824466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}