Suns Get Boost to Starting Lineup vs Nuggets

The Phoenix Suns have revealed their starting lineup against the Denver Nuggets for Saturday night action:

• Devin Booker
• Grayson Allen
• Dillon Brooks
• Royce O'Neale
• Oso Ighodaro

For Denver, the Nuggets will have Nikola Jokic available after he was initially questionable with a wrist injury.

The Suns are hoping to make good on the second night of a back-to-back after dropping a close contest to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night.

Phoenix ruled out Mark Williams and Ryan Dunn ahead of game time. Grayson Allen and Jordan Goodwin are both available tonight after initially being listed as questionable.

“Oso looks fantastic. It's his super skills. It's the ability to switch and guard those types of ball-handlers the best we can and still be disruptive. I think he's made gains on his disruption," Suns coach Jordan Ott said on Ighodaro.

"He's always been a good switch defender. But now can he take the ball from the other team? We're still gonna ask him to rebound. Then offensively, he could connect. He can relieve some pressure, how physical and how aggressive they (OKC Thunder) are on our ball handlers, especially in the third quarter, I felt they were really disrupting us. Putting him in the game just changes some of that dynamic.

"Tonight will be a different challenge, because their offensive play is a little bit different in how they play. So, he's got to continue to take steps. He's got to impact no matter who he's playing, but last night was a really good showing by Oso.”

Denver won their prior matchup against Phoenix earlier this season.

Nuggets coach David Adelman offered this on playing Devin Booker tonight:

“Devin's been so good for so long. It was funny, I got to see him in a Nike camp when he was really young, and I was shocked. I knew how well he could handle the ball. Coming out of high school and then in college, he was on the historically really good Kentucky team where he was more of a catch and shoot guy.

"This version of him that's grown up in the NBA doesn't surprise me. He is an incredible pick and roll player, he gets to his spots. You have to impact him early. The game plans change each night with each team when you watch, but you can't let him play in rhythm and space, or he'll just carve you up. I know his assist holes have gone up as of late and the shot making in general.

"We have to stay attached to him. He's a major part of what they do, but with the idea of it's team defense impacting him to not let these other guys go crazy from three. It's a two headed monster of what he creates. He's an All-Star player for a long time, he was on a team that went to the finals, tremendous respect for his game.”

Opening tip is slated for 7:00 PM MST.

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