The Los Angeles Lakers bring a seven-game winning streak into their first meeting of the season with the Phoenix Suns on Monday night at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Los Angeles enters at 11-2, tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the best record in the NBA, while Phoenix is 5-6 and trying to build on a recent push.
That is why this game is drawing attention now: it pairs the NBA’s top offense, the Lakers’ 122.7 offensive rating, against a Suns team with a 117.6 defensive rating that ranks 26th in the league. It also puts Luka Doncic in the middle of the spotlight after he has averaged 38.6 points, 7.6 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 40.8% from three and 48.9% overall.
Austin Reaves will not play, and that matters because he has been a steady scoring option for Los Angeles at 24.7 points per game while shooting 40.9% from deep. The Lakers have already shown they can win without him this season, beating the Atlanta Hawks 124-114 in a game Reaves missed, with Collin Sexton supplying 18 points and six assists and Sandro Mamukelashvili adding 23 points and eight rebounds.
The Suns, though, have found some momentum of their own. They have won four of their last five games, with Devin Booker averaging 26.6 points, 5.4 assists and 2.0 steals over that stretch. Phoenix also faces a rebounding problem that has followed it all season, sitting last in the NBA in rebounds per game and having been out-rebounded by the Charlotte Hornets by 21 in its previous game.
There is still one layer to watch before tipoff: Collin Sexton is questionable. If he goes, Los Angeles gets another scorer and playmaker beside Doncic, and a team already shooting 38.3% from three could press an opponent that has allowed 37.4% shooting from beyond the arc. If he does not, the Lakers will need the same balance they used against Atlanta to keep the streak alive.
