Phoenix Suns v Dallas Mavericks 1/5 Game Preview

Phoenix Suns (11-25) v Dallas Mavericks (11-24)

Thursday 1/5/2017 6:30pm
American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Fox Sports Arizona/Arizona Sports 98.7FM

Season Series – Series tied 0-0
All-Time Series – Phoenix leads 77-70 (Dallas has won 4 in a row and 20 of last 27)
Last Matchup – January 5, 2017, Dallas won 91-78
Suns’ Last Game – Win over the Miami Heat 99-90
Mavericks’ Last Game – Win over Washington Wizards 113-105
Suns’ Scoring Averages – PTS/G: 105.8 (10th of 30) Opp PTS/G: 112.2 (29th of 30)
Mavericks’ Scoring Averages – PTS/G: 95.6 (30th of 30) Opp PTS/G: 100.7 (5th of 30)

Preview

Phoenix Suns

From the moment the Suns took the lead for the first time over the Miami Heat midway through the second quarter, the game never really felt in doubt. Phoenix fought off a brilliant first half from Goran Dragic and an incredible night from Willie Reed, to come away with the victory at home and snap a brief two-game losing streak. If Tyson Chandler’s 20 rebounds wasn’t impressive enough, it was the third time this season that he has reached that rebounding plateu. Charles Barkley was the last Sun to have at least three 20 rebound games in a season back in 1993-94 when he had 5…To read the Valley of the Suns’ postgame report and opinions, read here…Miami had the third worst record in the Eastern Conference, tonight Dallas is tied for the worst record in the Western Conference…In two consecutive games, the Suns will also face the two worst scoring teams in the league, Dallas in last place with 95.6 points per game…Phoenix is still the 7th worst three-point shooting team at 34.2% and by extension the third worst shooting team overall with a 48.8% eFG%…While the Suns take the 6th most free throw attempts per game with 25.4, they only make them at a 76.2% clip, 17th in the league…The Suns are still 7th in rebounding with 45.1 per game…Phoenix turns the ball over third most in the NBA at 16.1%, although they are third best in steals at 8.8 per game…Their 25.4 personal fouls per game is 1.5 more than second worst Memphis, the largest gap between any two teams in the category…With their regularly noted worst assist rate in the league combined with their high turnover rate, Phoenix boasts the worst assist to turnover ratio in the league with 1.14…Phoenix and Dallas do not contest a high percentage of shots. Dallas is third worst in the league with 59.0 opponents shots contested, whereas the Suns are 6th worst with 60.1…Over their last three games, the Suns are 5th best in opponent scoring average with 96.7. However, Phoenix is last in the category with 94.3 points per game over the same three…Phoenix and Dallas are tied for second in the league in flagrant fouls with 4 on the season…Eric Bledsoe is one of only five players to average at least 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists per game, Lebron James, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Giannis Antetokounmpo being the others…Brandon Knight is expected to play tonight after missing the Miami game due to a sprained right wrist. He is averaging 12.5 points off the bench, although he has a lowly 44.2% eFG%…Jared Dudley is still not seeing much court time having been benched again against Miami, although he is second on the team in eFG% with 61.7% and the league’s 8th best 3PT% holder at 44.0%…With 82.7% of all of his three-point attempts coming from the corner, P.J. Tucker is shooting 37.3% from that spot. He is a 33.3% three-point shooter all-together…By contrast, only 12.6% of Devin Booker’s three’s come from the corner…

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Dallas Mavericks

Dallas is the league’s worst rebounding team, averaging only 38.6. As a correlation, they are tied for the league’s second worst 2nd Chance Points per game with 10.4 and are last in the league in points in the paint with 32.7 per game, a whopping 5.1 fewer than second to last San Antonio, the largest gap between two teams in that category. However, they only allow 38.5 points in the paint, 3rd best in the NBA…They do not get to the line very often, taking only 18.0 free throw attempts per game, last in the league, although they make them at a decent clip, 6th overall at 79.9%…Dallas is 4th worst in assists at 19.6, only 1.2 more than Phoenix…They block the second fewest shots per game with 3.7. The Lakers are last with 3.6…The Mavericks are going to try and slow the Suns down, literally. They have the second lowest pace in the Association with 93.43. The Suns’ pace is nearly 10 possessions more per game than Dallas at 102.92. As a result of their slow pace, the Mavericks score the fewest points per game on fastbreak points with 6.0. Over their last three games Dallas has only averaged 4.7 fastbreak points. Phoenix averages 18.7 on the season and 21.0 in their last three…Dallas and Phoenix have two of the worst opponent eFG%. Phoenix is 24th with 52.5%, but Dallas is last with 54.0%…Dallas only allows 11.0 points in the paint, number one in the Western Conference, and second best in the league…Both Dallas and the Suns allow a lot of their opponents scoring from beyond the arc, with Dallas last in the league in opponent 3PT% at 40.1% and the Suns at second worst at 38.3%…On offense Dallas isolates a lot, 12.4%, the highest percentage of isolation plays in the league…Expect at least one drawn charge tonight for Dallas who leads the league in the category averaging 1.43 per game. Boston is second with 1.0, the biggest gap between any two teams…Harrison Barnes leads the Mavs in scoring with 20.6 and is second on the team in rebounding with 5.6…Andrew Bogut, who leads the team in rebounds, hasn’t reached double-figures in the category since December 3, although he has missed 12 games in that time as well…Seth Curry is having a breakout year this season with the Mavericks, with a line of 10.3/2.2/3.0, all career-highs. He has also started 6 games, three below his career-high he set last season…