Portland Trail Blazers vs Phoenix Suns 3/2/22: Starting Lineups, Matchup Preview, Betting Odds, Predictions

Portland Trail Blazers vs. Phoenix Suns Matchup Preview (3/2/22)

After a tough home loss to the Utah Jazz, Phoenix will host the Portland Trail Blazers in a Western Conference matchup on Wednesday night. Since losing Chris Paul to a finger injury, the Suns have struggled, going 1-2 in their past three games, including a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. Additionally, this marks the first time the Suns have dropped back-to-back games in two months, and that losing streak was justified in December. At the time, Phoenix dropped games to Golden State and Memphis, two of the other best teams in the Western Conference. This brings up the next point: it will take substantial efforts from Devin Booker and the supporting cast to stay in first place in the Western Conference, especially since the Memphis Grizzlies have been surging.

After a strange four-game winning streak, Portland finally returned to form on February 24th, when the Golden State Warriors slaughtered it by 37 points. Then, the Blazers got pummeled by 32 points three nights later to the Denver Nuggets. To add insult to injury, both of those games were at home. Now, the Blazers have to travel to Phoenix to try and get things back on track, so check out the next section for my projection of this game and who I will be betting on!

Portland Trail Blazers vs. Phoenix Suns Betting Odds

After an unfortunate home loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, the Suns should be prepared to bounce back in a big way against Portland, who has had such a poor defense this season. Phoenix has not lost three straight games all season long, and it will not start now against such a miserable Portland team. I will go with the Suns against the spread and Suns’ Moneyline for this matchup. To me, it’s a no-brainer as long as the spread hangs around -13 or better. Additionally, I like the under for the point total around 230, because Portland has had two straight games of not reaching 100 points. The Blazers should now be in full tank mode at this point, so it could very well be a 120-95 type of game by the final horn.

How To Watch

Date: 3/2/22
Time: 10:00 PM ET
Arena: Footprint Center – Phoenix, AZ
Channel: ESPN

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Portland Trail Blazers Starting Lineup

PG: Anfernee Simons
SG: C.J. Elleby
SF: Josh Hart
PF: Justise Winslow
C: Trendon Watford

Portland Trail Blazers Analysis

The Portland Trail Blazers have failed to put up 100 points in back-to-back games, which is not a good sign for their future offensive output. After stringing together four straight wins, Portland is right back to losing. Its starting lineup of Anfernee Simons, C.J. Elleby, Josh Hart, Justise Winslow, and Trendon Watford is flat-out not good enough to win many games in this league, especially considering that they don’t play much defense. It will take a solid shooting night from the Blazers and a 40-point game from Simons for them to compete with the Phoenix Suns, even if they do not have Chris Paul.

Phoenix Suns Starting Lineup

PG: Devin Booker
SG: Cameron Johnson
SF: Mikal Bridges
PF: Jae Crowder
C: Deandre Ayton

Phoenix Suns Analysis

Since losing Chris Paul to a finger injury, the Suns are 1-2 with losses against the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz. Paul’s importance to the Suns’ offense is clear and vital; he’s like the engine of a car. While Phoenix can still be a great team because of its culture, supporting cast, and the fact that it has superstar Devin Booker, it still could struggle from time to time, especially on the offensive end. For instance, it only dropped 102 points on a New Orleans Pelicans team that ranks 21st in defensive efficiency, 26th in opponent eFG% (effective field goal percentage), and 25th in opponent 3P% (three-point percentage.) Even though things have looked up for New Orleans since it acquired C.J. McCollum, it is by no means as consistent of a team as Phoenix. Now, the Suns do not have Cameron Payne or Chris Paul, which could spell trouble at times; however, this game does not seem to be one with those letters.

Portland Trail Blazers vs. Phoenix Suns Daily Fantasy Picks

How does that one saying go? More money, more problems? That is sort of the reverse for this situation with All-Star guard Devin Booker. In this case, there are more problems (Chris Paul is out with a finger injury, which hurts the overall offense), but more money (statistics) with him out of the lineup. At least, that is my theory. Since Paul has been out, Booker has averaged eight assists per game, nearly four more assists per game than his season average. For this matchup, against such a pathetic defense, Booker could go for 30-40 points and nearly double-digits assists, which could be the biggest stat line for that slate of games.

You will have a hard time finding any Portland Trail Blazers players that you should plug into your DFS lineup right now. If they had Jusuf Nurkic at their disposal, then I would be pretty high on him in most games, but he is injured, along with Damian Lillard, Eric Bledsoe, Joe Ingles, and Nassir Little. This leaves a serious void in the Trail Blazers’ offense; they have virtually no scorers outside of Anfernee Simons. I guess that means that if there is any player to consider playing on Portland, it would be Simons. Simons is expensive right now, and rightfully so, as he has scored 30 points in three of his past five games. The trouble here is that he will have so much attention from the Phoenix defense that he may not get off as many clean looks as we would hope. Still, he is worthy of consideration because of his strong offensive output.