Phx-Suns.Net

Time: 6:00 pm AZ (5:00 pm PT/8:00 pm ET)
Place: Toyota Center, Houston, TX
TV: AZ Family 3TV/NBALP

Dillon Brooks returns to Houston Friday night for the first time since the KD trade went down. I expect he will get a warm reception. It will also be KD's first game against the Suns since the trade since he sat out the first game for personal reasons.

https://www.nba.com/gamenotes/rockets.pdf
https://www.nba.com/gamenotes/suns.pdf

Go Suns!!!

Dis • cuss

Suns by 7…. Durant 10 turnovers.

Conventional wisdom would have us losing this one without Booker and Green. But losing Sengun is pretty massive for Houston, too; he has been spectacular this season. If you are trying to envision a path to a Suns win here, you're hoping that maybe KD would go into iso chuck mode and shoot poorly and that we'd be able to outpace them. Or maybe Gillespie or Royce goes nuts with a bunch of 3s.

ShelC wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 05, 2025 4:26 pm

With Sengun out, more creating and ballhandling falls on Thompson, Sheppard, and KD. Pressure all those guys and make them as uncomfortable as possible. Williams is going to have to be huge on the boards, and really might have to play more than usual (or Richards might have to get some meaningful minutes, which, yikes, hopefully not). This is a pretty bad matchup for Oso to be playing a lot as a sole big man.

Gotta be smart with rotations and closeouts. If we're doubling KD to get the ball out of his hands, then you want Amen shooting and not getting into the lane. Run Reed off the line, make Jabari put it on the floor. Keep Adams off the glass.

Would love to see us play fast and hopefully Brooks doesn't take 30 shots because he's playing against his old team.

Bad shooting caught up to us in the 2nd half. The whole team seems a bit hesitant but the Rockets are also defending us well. Spacing isn't great, a lot of Brooks on offense. Grayson is rusty, I think CG is having issues with their length and athleticism and then some bad communication on defense that let them get open looks at the basket. KD got hot and had 17 in the 2nd so we're down 10 now.

Really ugly second half.

Meh…. Take the lesson we learned from this and grow from it.

worst game of the season

Suns didn't have it tonight for sure. No one had any pop. Missing Book hurt but it's hard to go smaller against this team.

Couldn't buy a three and the Rockets were hitting theirs.

One of the few highlights:

This was cool for the Rockets to do. Probably wanted to soften him up. At least for one game.

Postgame Quotes and Videos

Nothing to see here folks. Rough game, but we don't have anyone who needs a double-team. Flush this one and move on.

Yea it's almost like having Book out there would've been a good thing.

Rankin: "Did I see you get a little emotional?"

Brooks: "NO!"

LOL