How Suns Can Cruise to Victory vs Blazers

What are three things the Suns can do to stay alive in the in-season tournament race?

The Phoenix Suns will look to improve to 8-6 on the season tonight with a contest against the Portland Trail Blazers at Footprint Center. 

Portland is currently one of the teams that is struggling the most to the tune of a 3-10 record just about a month in. The team was clearly heading into a rebuild following the Damian Lillard trade, but unfortunate injuries and questionable coaching decisions have lead to them struggling even more than anticipated. 

While this is a game that should result in the win column for the Suns, there are still certain things the team must execute to secure a win in a league chock full of the best talent in the world. 

Keep Blazers on Perimeter 

The Trail Blazers' offense is just simply the worst in basketball. 

When Matisse Thybulle is leading your team in three-point percentage, there's a serious problem with said team's offense. 

While Portland does have a number of talented scorers, there's no clear-cut alpha in the offense, and most of them are either struggling with nagging injuries or consistency from behind the arc. 

While Portland only attempts 33 three pointers a night, they hit a paltry 10.3, which totals out to just over 30% as a team. 

While Phoenix does lead the league in blocks per game, the best point of attack tonight is to wall up down-low and force tough shots from three-point land.

Pressure the Rim Early and Often

The Blazers' defense is actually around league-average in points allowed per game, but are near the bottom in blocked shots. 

The only player who averages over 1 block a night is Robert Williams, who is now out for the season. While Toumani Camara and Deandre Ayton have been somewhat solid on the interior, there is no one who will strike fear into anyone at the rim. 

The Suns also are number seven in the league in free throws attempted per game, and convert at an over 83% rate.

Portland having athletic and versatile defenders on the perimeter such as Thybulle and Jerami Grant make this a perfect opportunity for Suns bigs Jusuf Nurkic/Drew Eubanks to take advantage of up-top touches. The potential for Laker cuts and back-door cuts to work at a high rate in this particular game is too strong to ignore.

Continue Limiting Unforced Errors 

The Suns (still) have a turnover problem. 

Although Phoenix has noticeably reduced the amount of lazy passes and, in turn, turnovers the last week-plus, they still rank bottom five in the NBA in turnovers per game. 

Much of this is due to the lack of continuity and too much telegraphing/overthinking. from players with high basketball IQ.

We saw firsthand how potent the Suns' offense can be when limiting turnovers and sloppy play Friday night in Utah, only ceding eight turnovers in 48 minutes of action. 

Phoenix can likely manage to secure a win against Portland with a multitude of errors, but this is more of an over-arching theme of continuing to build continuity/good habits for the rest of the season.