Who: Phoenix Suns (2-1) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (1-2)
When: 7:00pm Arizona Time
Where: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Watch: Suns+, Arizona’s Family 3TV, Arizona’s Family Sports
Listen: KMVP 98.7,
KSUN
Ah, basketball at a normal hour.
After splitting a pair of preseason games against the Brooklyn Nets in Macao, the Phoenix Suns finally return home to play their lone preseason game at the newly renamed Mortgage Matchup Center. The opponent is a familiar one. The Los Angeles Lakers, the same team Phoenix already handled earlier in the preseason.
A trip halfway across the world to play exhibition basketball is far from ideal. It scrambles sleep schedules, disrupts practice rhythms, and can derail the steady build of preseason momentum. Yet there’s something quietly valuable in the experience. Traveling that far together, navigating jet lag and shared exhaustion, tends to forge chemistry that can’t be measured in stats or film sessions. You can already feel it. The team energy is humming with something collective, something earned.
Now back in the Valley, this final preseason game carries a different kind of weight. The regular season looms just eight days away. One last chance to tighten rotations, refine chemistry, and settle position battles. But more than anything, it’s a chance to feel the pulse of home again. To hear the crowd, to reconnect with the rhythm of the floor, to remember what all the travel and grind were for.
The season isn’t here yet, but you can sense it breathing, right there on the horizon.
Probable Starters
Injury Report
Suns
- Mark Williams — OUT (Undisclosed)
- Jalen Green — QUESTIONABLE (Hamstring)
Lakers
- LeBron James — OUT (Pinched Nerve)
- Maxi Kleber — OUT (Quadriceps)
- Adou Thiero — QUESTIONABLE (Knee)
What to Watch For
The rotations. That’s the heart of this final preseason game. It’s the last real chance for head coach Jordan Ott to study his combinations, to see what lineups flow and which ones falter. Every minute on the floor becomes data: movement, spacing, communication, the subtle rhythm between players. This is where patterns start to emerge, where a coach begins to understand what he can trust once the lights get brighter.
Of course, that understanding remains incomplete with Jalen Green still questionable and Mark Williams sidelined. Two starters out changes the picture, limiting what can be learned about the full design of this team. But even within that limitation, there’s knowledge to gain. How players adapt to new roles, who steps into the gaps, how effort translates into cohesion; these moments shape the early identity of a team.
Then comes the subplot that always defines this stage of preseason: the roster fight.
Jordan Goodwin and Jared Butler are in the middle of it, both trying to carve out a spot before the clock runs out. Goodwin holds the edge for now, under contract but not guaranteed until January. Butler, meanwhile, faces a steeper climb. His decision day comes Saturday, and unless he delivers something undeniable, his time in the Valley may be nearing its end.
It’s a reminder of how fleeting these moments can be. For some, it’s a tune-up before the season begins. For others, it’s a final audition before the curtain falls.
Key to a Suns Win
Permission to be petty? Permission granted. Oh, joy.
Put a body on Deandre Ayton. That’s all it takes. Watching Lakers fans get their first real taste of the DA experience has been some of the finest entertainment around. When he feels pressure, when someone stays physical with him, he drifts. He fades.
Sure, he can hit a few of those turnarounds. He has touch. But that’s not how you want your seven-footer playing. That’s not control, that’s retreat.
If the Suns want to win, body him up and let him settle for those fadeaways all night. It worked the last time these two teams met, and it’ll work again. The best part? Watching Lakers fans spiral when it happens. The final score won’t mean much, but seeing that collective meltdown? That’s the kind of victory you can savor.
Prediction
All right, let’s throw a prediction out there. The Suns will come out sharp, connected, and playing with energy. The crowd will feed off it, thrilled to see their team back on the floor in front of them. The shots will fall early, the ball will move, and that familiar rhythm will return.
By the third quarter, Phoenix will be in control, the lead comfortable but not safe. The fourth will tighten, as preseason games often do, but the Suns will find enough stability and focus to finish it out. Call it a statement win, even if it doesn’t count in the standings. A reminder that the season is near, and that this team might be finding its pulse at the right time.
Suns 115, Lakers 109
