Breaking down and Predicting the Phoenix Suns’ 2019-20 schedule: March
By Adam Maynes
Opening March at home
Opening vs Toronto after two days off, and in the midst of the longest homestand of the season, six games (they also have a six-game homestand from November 4-18), this is a game that one can argue the Suns should win.
Sans Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, augmented by an aging core that is now star-less, plus the game being played in Phoenix with a team that has had some rest, and one has to think that the Suns can pull it off.
The homestand concludes with games against Portland and Milwaukee, which again are both winnable, however even though Phoenix swept the Bucks last season, I do not see such a thing happening again, thus I’ll say they split the two with a victory over the Blazers on the 6th, then a loss on the 8th.
2-1 to start the month before heading on the road for the majority of the remainder of March would not be bad at all.
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The Suns open a short initial two-game road trip facing off against the Blazers once again, then follow it up with a matchup vs Dallas.
Winning on the road is always difficult, and even more so with a young team. The Blazers and their fans are probably going to want to exact revenge which will likely make that game very difficult on Phoenix, but the Dallas game should arguably be far more winnable.
We will see how Kristaps Porzingis is getting along by this point in the season, and if his health is solid and he and Luka Doncic have built a chemistry and synergy that is the envy of most of the league. If so, then a victory will be tough.
However, Dallas is still not a great team by any means, and while the aforementioned young European imports are going to be a fun-to-watch dynamic due for a long time, Phoenix will tout Ricky Rubio with Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, a formidable trio that should be able to overcome their Western rivals.
Coming home briefly against Minnesota, the Suns should be able to pull off a victory on four-days rest, then head back out on the road with a very difficult matchup against the Clippers, which is followed up back home for the second leg of a back-to-back, which once again, features the Mavericks.
My presumption is that the Clippers will be clicking on all cylinders by this point in the season, which might actually work in the Suns’ favor to a degree. If L.A. is able to put this game away early enough, then Phoenix can rest their own stars to prepare them for another matchup against the Mavs at home, the following day.
Presuming the ability to rest, I will once again pick Phoenix over Dallas here, as the Suns wrap up their final home game of the month before embarking on a six-game road trip, their final lengthy trip of the year which also happens to be their longest, and with five of those games happening to be played in March.