Preseason Game Preview: Spurs at Phoenix Suns

The real NBA season is back! Well... at least the real NBA preseason. The point is that the San Antonio Spurs will face a real NBA team in a real NBA arena with (some) real NBA fans in attendance.

After their heartbreaking defeat to Alba Berlin last Wednesday, the Spurs are in must-win mode in order to stay in the post-preseason hunt. The next game in our journey brings our international band of brothers to the hostile land of Phoenix, native to Suns, Diamondbacks, Mercuries, Cardinals, and Glenn Becks.

But we're going to focus in on the Phoenix Suns, a team with one of the brightest (pun intended) futures in the league. Their backcourt is a terrifying three-headed dragon, but one of those dragons that is a juggernaut offensively and has a tough time keeping opposing dragons out of the paint. They also feature several young talents, including the Morrii, Tyler Ennis, Archie Goodwin, and Isaiah Thomas.

Despite the heavyweight potential that a Spurs-Suns matchup has in the 2014-15 season, we won't get a good indicator of it Thursday night. This game will amount to lineup management and development for both sides. Tiago Splitter, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, and Patty Mills are all sidelined by injuries/oldness, and Coach Hornacek has been mixing and matching combinations of bench players all preseason long. Anthony Tolliver was Phoenix's leading minutes man on Monday's game against the Rockets, which is about as far into preseason mode as we can get.

At the very least, this will be a great opportunity to get sneak-peek at some potential breakout role players, like Cory Joseph, Kyle Anderson, Tyler Ennis, and Isaiah Thomas. If these guys want to earn meaningful minutes in the NBA, it's games like these that they must show off their potential.

With all of the rotation madness in this game, it's hard to say what the score will be after 48 minutes. No matter the result and the players out there, let's enjoy ourselves - it's Spurs' basketball, and in just 12 days time from Thursday's tipoff, the NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs begin the Chase for Seis.

Preseason Game 3
	@
San Antonio Spurs		Phoenix Suns
October, 16, 2014
US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona
9:00 PM CDT
TV: N/A Radio: WOAI 1200AM
Starters
Cory Joseph	PG	Eric Bledsoe
Danny Green	SG	Goran Dragic
Not Kawhi Leonard :(	SF	PJ Tucker
Boris Diaw	PF	Markieff Morris
Aron Baynes	C	Miles Plumlee