Orlando at Phoenix
Time: 8 PM CT, NBA LP
Spread: ORL -1.5
Total: 218
Odds c/o Bovada
PHX
The Phoenix Suns are just 4-17 this season, possessing a bottom-third defense that allows 114.1 points per game while the Suns manage to score just 104.1 itself, ranking worst in the Association. The point differential is -10.0.
Phoenix has a few great top talents, but it cannot seem to find much rhythm or continuity on the defensive end. Devin Booker is averaging 24.5 points per game and 7.0 assists, but his efficiency has been questionable with a PER Of just 17.3 due to his 44 percent shooting and 31 percent three-point shooting. TJ Warren has rounded into one of the better undersized forwards in the league, but his tough defense has gone unnoticed on a team so poor in that respect. Warren also averages 17.6 points per game in just under 30 minutes a night.
The Suns have been quite pleased with No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton. Ayton looks seasoned and is a good rim protector. He is averaging 17.7 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.48 blocks/steals per game. The Suns ideally would like him to swat more shots, but his overall defense has been solid for a rookie. Outside of that top-3, the Suns start to fall off. Trevor Ariza is playing his role, but it is a role on a team that needs more than solid veterans in the starting line. Ariza averages under 10 points per game.
The biggest hole is at point guard where Phoenix starts young journeyman Isaiah Canaan. And Josh Jackson has fallen out of the starting lineup, seeing just 17 minutes a game to average seven points per contest. The Suns have some nice pieces intact at the top of the roster but need depth, a point guard, and a defensive identity, where it currently has none save its sieve identity in giving up so many while scoring so few itself.
ORL
Orlando is 10-12 after dropping its last two outings to the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers, to start its West Coast road trip.
The Magic rank No. 9 in team defense while holding opponents to 109.2 points per game, but the issue in Orlando has largely been scoring the basketball. The Magic average just 106.1 points per game, ranking No. 24, despite having the sixth-highest assist total of all franchises.
Orlando has been riding the solid play of Nikola Vucevic, who leads the team in scoring at 18 points per game. Aaron Gordon has been inconsistent, but great at times, and he is averaging 16.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Vucevic, once mainly considered trade bait, has won an Eastern Conference Player of the Week award and is averaging over 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists per game. He very well could get an All-Star nod if the Magic remain near or above .500 when February rolls around.
Outside of the play of sixth man Terrence Ross, Orlando’s bench has struggled mightily. Ross is No. 4 on the team in scoring at 14 points per game, and he has been a great candidate for both Most Improved and the Sixth Man award… But he has received little help scoring, and Jonathon Simmons has been outright horrible. The Magic were not expecting massive scoring contributions from rookie Mo Bamba, who leads the team in blocks at 1.3 per game.
It is just that backup point guard Jerian Grant, second-year swingman Wesley Iwundu, and the rest of the bench (though Iwundu has been starting, he has been getting bench type minutes) are producing so little on the offensive end.
Orlando probably lacks the scoring punch to be serious threats this year, but it could sneak in the playoffs in the decimated and weak bottom half of the Eastern Conference.
