Predicting the Phoenix Suns in 2019-20 vs the Northwest Division
By Adam Maynes
Northwest Division
Portland Trail Blazers
By the time the regular season begins, the Phoenix Suns will have not defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in three calendar years, and even that victory required overtime and some unlikely heroes on the Suns’ side.
Since then, Portland has won ten straight over Phoenix, a record for the Blazers (the Suns have winning streaks of 15 and 11 against the Blazers in the two teams’ combined histories).
Portland had to deal with a good offseason shakeup after their Western Conference Finals run, losing Seth Curry, Evan Turner, Maurice Harkless, Jake Layman, Meyers Leonard, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Enes Kanter, while adding Kent Bazemore, Mario Hezonja, Anthony Tolliver, and Hassan Whiteside.
Wow. That is a lot of changing faces.
I do not believe that the Blazers with all of that turnover are as good as last season’s team, but they are still a force to be reckoned with considering that both Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are still wearing the black, white, and red, two players who deserve the lion’s share of the credit in this recent ten-game domination over Phoenix since 2016.
That said, with the Suns’ own improvement, I expect that losing streak to end this season. Will it be the first game or last, who knows, but if they play each other three times like last year, Phoenix will win one.
That said, if they face-off, twice, I’ll give the Suns a great shot at winning two and splitting the series.