Preview: How Suns Can Stay Hot Against Struggling Mavericks

Despite the Suns having no clear star or even No. 2 option with Green out, every player is showing a great deal of confidence, which makes them very hard to play against.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Suns are playing great individual defense and rotating very well, leading to them forcing 16.5 turnovers per game, which ranks sixth in the NBA and has made it very hard for teams to find a rhythm against them as of late and allowed Phoenix to get extra possessions and turn these into points on the other end.

"I'm not going to take credit for putting the roster together, but the roster is filled with shooting, and again, we just have to create enough paint pressure and then move it," Suns coach Jordan Ott said after the win over New Orleans. "And when your best player moves it like he does ... a lot of times he hits the first trigger and then the next guy gets the shot ... we're going to keep shooting.

"I thought our defensive intensity there in that second quarter really picked up. I thought even from the jump our defensive intensity was really good. We were really good with our ball pressure tonight. Now it's just about maintaining it for as long as we can."

Ott has credited Booker, who is averaging 28.4 points and 6.8 assists, with setting the tone defensively in multiple games this season, a testament to the team's effort and intensity on both sides of the ball.

New Sign of Life for Mavericks?

Nothing has been going well for the Mavs this season even after landing the No. 1 overall pick this summer and drafting Cooper Flagg.

This culminated into the firing of general manager and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison Tuesday. Fans had been chanting "Fire Nico!" at home games all year long even while their own players were shooting free throws.

The Mavs also upgraded Anthony Davis (left calf sprain) and Dereck Lively II (right knee sprain) to questionable against Phoenix yesterday, but Davis will be out according to ESPN's TIm MacMahon.

Davis has missed the last six games for Dallas with his injury, and Lively has been out for the past eight games after injuring himself in the second game of the season.

Dallas is really limited offensively without Davis and Kyrie Irving, who is out after tearing his ACL last season, and is averaging the fewest points per game in the league as a team (107.2) and shooting the lowest 3-point percentage (29.5%).

Harrison's firing could turn out to be a big weight lifted off the Dallas' shoulders and inserting Davis and Gafford back into the lineup would help even more.

Tonight's game tips off at 6:30 p.m. MST.

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