![\"Phoenix](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01kejpx7jkx3fypeeqg1.jpg\" "\\"Phoenix")
<\/p>\nPHOENIX \u2014 The Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks will collide for the first time all season tonight at Mortgage Matchup Center, and both teams have gotten off to solid starts. <\/p>\n
The Knicks are second in the Eastern Conference with a 24-13 record, though they’ve lost their last four-of-five matchups. Phoenix, meanwhile, is 7-2 in their last nine games with a 22-15 record and possession of the Western Conference’s seventh seed. <\/p>\n
Suns coach Jordan Ott will deploy this starting lineup as tonight’s 7:00 PM MST start time nears:<\/p>\n
Suns Reveal Starters vs Knicks<\/p>\n
Dec 20, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) reacts after scoring against the Golden State Warriors during the first quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-Imagn Images | John Hefti-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The Suns are still down Jalen Green (right hamstring strain) and Jamaree Bouyea (concussion) entering Friday night while Josh Hart (right ankle sprain), Trey Jemison III (G League) and Landry Shamet (right shoulder sprain) and Guerschon Yabusele (quad) are out for the Knicks. <\/p>\n
“They play good basketball, they have some veteran guys that have been through the fire. You have Dillon Brooks\u00a0who is showing you not only can he obviously defend and bring an edge to his basketball team, but also get down\u00a0offensively,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said of Phoenix during his pre-game press conference. <\/p>\n
“Book is an all-star player. Make it out, they run, crash glass and do a pretty good job defensively.\u00a0 Overall, they are trying to put pressure on you. They’ll pick up full court. There are a lot of things that we’re going\u00a0to have to try to make sure we maintain or follow our principles tonight because they can attack in a lot of\u00a0different ways.”\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The Suns typically have the advantage in the “math game” against teams as Ott likes to emphasize the three-ball, though the Knicks hit from deep nearly better than most in the NBA. New York is third in three-point percentage at 38.3% on the season. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s all predicted on a defense, what they’re trying to do. It’s another one tonight where they protect the rim at a high rate. They don’t let you get there,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said of New York. <\/p>\n
“We’d obviously like to get there, gonna take it away, we’re gonna have\u00a0 enough shooting on the floor as we get healthy here to really share it. Starts with our superstar, when he has the\u00a0ability to track double teams, game, after game, after game, and we’re able to space them with some shooting\u00a0and then have the rim threat of our five. It all just works together to try to find high quality shots. <\/p>\n
“If we shoot\u00a0another fifty tonight and there are fifty good ones, great. If we can get to the rim, we’d obviously love to prefer to\u00a0get to the room, but teams take it away so when those teams take it away you gotta find another way to create\u00a0high quality shots.”\u00a0 <\/p>\n
New York’s also top five in team categories such as points per game (119.7) and rebounds per game (45.8). <\/p>\n
For the Suns, their 10.6 steals per night is first in the NBA. <\/p>\n
Latest Phoenix Suns News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks will collide for the first time all season tonight…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":505220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-505219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115868668219311090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}