Phoenix Suns vs. Washington Wizards Pick & Prediction JANUARY 16th 2025
Preview and Prediction
The Phoenix Suns are struggling to achieve success on the road while the Washington Wizards are facing difficulties in securing a win regardless of their location.
On Thursday night, the Suns will attempt to break their losing streak on the road as they face the Wizards in the second game of their five-game journey.
The Suns started their road trip with a 122-117 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night. This defeat marks their 11th loss in their last 13 away games.
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Devin Booker had an impressive performance, scoring a season-high 35 points and sinking seven 3-pointers against Atlanta. Kevin Durant also contributed 31 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. However, the Suns were ultimately defeated due to their inability to stop the Hawks from recording 20 offensive rebounds.
"You have to be aggressive from the start. When you have players like (Clint) Capela and (Onyeka Okongwu), you have to make sure they don't dominate the boards," Booker stated, according to AZcentral.com. "Someone else needs to grab the rebound. It's like a face guard, but it caused problems for us."
Tyus Jones had a more straightforward response to the issue.
"It's costing us games. Honestly. It's costing us games," Jones said, per AZcentral.com. "A few of those rebounds could have changed the outcome. It's a problem that we need to address, or it will continue to hurt us."
According to an ESPN report on Wednesday afternoon, the Suns are addressing their frontcourt by trading for Charlotte center Nick Richards and a second-round draft pick. Richards, who stands at 7 feet tall, is averaging 8.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 21 games this season. In exchange, the Hornets will receive guard Josh Okogie (6.0 ppg in 25 games) and three second-round picks.
Thursday's game will be a homecoming for Bradley Beal, who spent his first 11 seasons with the Wizards, and Tyus Jones, who played just one season with the team.
Unfortunately, Beal suffered an ankle sprain in the third quarter of Tuesday's game. While he was able to finish the game, his availability for Thursday's matchup is uncertain.
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"It's not as good as it could be," Beal said of his ankle. "It was definitely a bad tweak, but I pushed through it and did my best to finish the game."
The Wizards have been struggling to close out games, losing their last seven contests.
In their 120-106 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, Kyle Kuzma scored 22 points and Jordan Poole added 20 for Washington.
Rookies Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, and Kyshawn George also made significant contributions, both in performance and minutes played.
Sarr scored 13 points, marking his 15th game out of the last 16 in which he has scored in double digits. George added 10 points and Carrington had eight points and five rebounds.
The group of freshmen played a combined 80 minutes in the game.
"I've never played this many games or minutes before, so it's definitely taking a toll on me," Carrington said earlier this week, according to the Washington Post. "... I can't dwell on it; I just have to push through it."
Second-year player Bilal Coulibaly had a strong performance on Tuesday, scoring 15 points and sinking two 3-pointers.
"I felt good and made my shots. My teammates found me when I was open, and I was aggressive when I needed to be," Coulibaly said, according to the Washington Post.
Phoenix vs. Washington Recap JAN 11TH 2021
Cameron Johnson and Devin Booker combined for 18 first-quarter points Friday afternoon, helping the Phoenix Suns build a big lead en route to a 125-112 victory over the Washington Wizards in each team's opener in the NBA bubble near Orlando.
Booker finished with a game-high 27 points and Deandre Ayton registered a 24-point, 12-rebound double-double for the Suns (27-39), who entered the resumption of play with the worst record among the 13 Western Conference teams still alive.
Rui Hachimura paced the Wizards (24-41) with 21 points.
Desperately needing a win in the opener of a schedule that gets progressively tougher, the Suns wasted little time distancing themselves from the Wizards, who are without John Wall, Bradley Beal and Davis Bertans for the rest of the season.
Johnson, a rookie who had averaged just 8.1 points before the break, responded to his second start of the season with a 3-pointer and three-point play among 10 first-quarter points as the Suns ran up 38 points in the period to take a seven-point lead.
The Wizards seized a brief 46-44 lead at the 7:17 mark of the second quarter on a Thomas Bryant jumper. But Phoenix, which was missing Kelly Oubre Jr. and Aron Baynes, ran off 16 straight points to grab command for good 4:16 before the half.
Mikal Bridges and Cameron Payne buried 3-pointers in the run, which put Phoenix on top 60-46.
Washington got no closer than seven in the second half.
Dario Saric (16), Ricky Rubio (15), Bridges (13) and Johnson (12) joined Booker and Ayton in double figures for Phoenix, which returns to action Sunday night against Dallas.
Rubio also found time for a game-high nine assists in a balanced Suns attack.
Along with Hachimura, who had a team-high eight rebounds, Jerome Robinson (20), Ish Smith (17 to go with a team-high seven assists), Troy Brown Jr. (15), Shabazz Napier (12) and Bryant (10) scored in double figures for Washington, which failed to gain ground on Brooklyn (30-35) in their duel for eighth place in the East.
The Suns outshot the Wizards 52.5 percent to 46.2, earning a season-series split after Washington had won at Phoenix 140-132 in November.