Without Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal due to injury for the third-straight game, the Phoenix Suns made an unexpected starting lineup change for today’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!As we have seen the past two games, the Suns will roll with Tyus Jones, Devin Booker, Ryan Dunn and Jusuf Nurkić, but will now add in a double big strategy with Mason Plumlee in the starting 5. Royce O’Neale and Josh Okogie each had one start in this fifth spot the past two games, both blowout losses for the Suns.
Today's starting five. pic.twitter.com/U2T3h6aLv8
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 17, 2024
Plumlee has only started one game up until this point, but it was because Nurkić was out due to injury. With the Timberwolves starting Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert, the Suns appear to have seen it in their best interest to start two bigs. Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels are the other starters for Minnesota.
With that said, the Suns have struggled way more offensively than defensively without Beal and Durant. In Wednesday’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix shot a then season-low 36-for-97 (37.1%) as a team and 13-for-43 (30.2%) from 3. They followed this up with another season-low performance, going 22-for-75 (29.3%) from the floor and 9-for-37 (24.3%) from 3 in their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday. This was Phoenix’s second-worst shooting percentage in a game in franchise history.
With Plumlee and Nurkić both in the lineup, there could be some problems with spacing offensively, but we will see what happens when the ball is tipped.
Today’s game begins shortly after 1:30 p.m. MST.
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
