The Suns went into the All-Star break winning two games in a row and 5 of their last 6, however they could come out of the break without the services of Bradley Beal who underwent a procedure on his broken nose. Beal has been wearing a protective mask over the past 9 games, he could be sidelined for a while until he’s cleared to play. Phoenix does have a winning record without Beal this year at 14-11 SU, but I personally doubt they can be the dominant team they’ve been over the past two months or so without him. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker have carried the majority of the burden offensively and I don’t expect any significant changes to that strategy moving forward. The regular season series is tied at 1-1 between them and the Mavericks, each team won their respective road game.
Luka Doncic was the only Mavs representative in the All-Star game over the weekend, he had yet another lackluster performance with just 7 points scored. It’s pretty clear that Luka has bigger goals on his mind, Dallas is currently on a 6-game win streak, but more importantly their two best players are healthy and playing extremely well. They are one of the more banged up teams at the moment, so this week off will do them well as they try to make a run for it in the 2nd part of the regular season. The Mavs have to be careful here though, they’re just 5-11 ATS in their last 16 home games vs the Suns, they enter Thursday’s game as 3-point favorites according to the oddsmakers.
