Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs. Phoenix Suns

It’s a battle of two teams going in opposite directions tonight at the AT&T Center. The Spurs have won seven of their last eight games while the struggling Phoenix Suns have lost five of their last six. The only win in that stretch for the Suns came against the lowly 76ers.

The teams last met on on December 15th when the Spurs won in Phoenix by 15, 107-92, and the Spurs were led by Kawhi Leonard and Pau Gasol who each scored 18 for the Silver and Black. LaMarcus Aldridge, Dewayne Dedmon and Tony Parker also scored in double figures for the squad and those five scored 72 of San Antonio’s 107 points on 29-for-46 (63%) from the field. The Spurs shot 53% as a team and held the Suns to just 40% overall.

The Spurs lead the overall regular-season series 88-75 but have completely dominated Phoenix over the last several years. San Antonio has not only won the last eight games the teams have played but they’ve won 20 of the last 24 regular-season contests dating back to November 3rd, 2010.

The Spurs are currently sixth in the league in offensive-rating (109.4) and have moved up to third in defensive-rating (101.6) as well as net-rating (+7.8). Phoenix ranks 22nd (102.3), 24th (107.6) and 26th (-5.3) in those categories, respectively. That doesn’t even speak to how lopsided this matchup really is as the teams have been better and worse in the month of December than that. San Antonio is sporting a net-rating of +10.5 for the month while the Suns have a woeful -7.3 number over that span.

Unlike last season, Spurs fans haven’t seen a ton of blowouts this season but I expect this game to be more along the lines of the last couple of contests where the Spurs easily took care of lesser teams, beating the Trail Blazers by 20 on Friday night and the Bulls by 19 on Christmas afternoon.

Phoenix Suns (9-22) at San Antonio Spurs (25-6)

Dec. 28, 2016 | 7:30pm CST

Watch: FSSW, NBA League Pass; Listen: 1200 AM WOAI

Vegas line: Spurs by 14 1/2

Game Prediction: Spurs by 18

Daily Fantasy Basketball Projections by numberFire

For the Suns fan perspective, visit your friendly neighborhood Bright Side of the Sun.

As always Tony must dominate Fisher.

PtR's Gamethread will be up for those who want to chat through the game. You can also follow along with the action through PtR's Twitter feed.