With Jalen Green yet to play Grayson Allen, who is listed as Green's backup at SG and SF, has been playing major minutes (34.6 min vs 24.1 last season) and has been averaging 5 assists a game (2.1 last season). Green should cut into Allen's minutes in his return tonight. But even when Allen averaged 33.5 minutes for Phoenix in '23-24, he averaged 3.0 assists. I expect some major regression to his minutes (25 to 29) and assists (under 4) starting tonight. He is 7-1 over 3.5 this season but last season at home he was just 6-28 (2 avg) over 3.5 assists.

I had Devin Booker over this line the other night vs. the Warriors but he came up just short. He only has 3 and 2 rebound his last 2 games and had more turnovers (5) than assists (4). Jalen Green should make his Suns debut tonight and while he's clearly not a point guard he does have plenty of 5+ assist games on his gamelog and he can hopefully take some of taxing ball handling responsibilities off of Booker's plate and free up Booker to get some boards. We are projecting Booker for 3.9 which is what he's averaged this season. Since last season he is 46-37 over this line.

The line is just 6.5 to 7.5 points for a simple reason. Brook Lopez is averaging just 7 points per game (2-5 over 6.5) on the Clippers. But when Kawhi Leonard sat their last game vs OKC, Lopez scored 12 points in just 16 minutes. With both Kawhi and James Harden out, I see Lopez getting a few more minutes and a few more shots and contribute offensively more like he did last season on the Bucks. He averaged more on the road last season (12.8 per game) and is 37-7 over 6.5 points when he played on a team that needed his offense like the Clippers should tonight.

Really not trying to rag on the NBA because it gave me the best sports decade of my life with MJ's Bulls. 3-point shrug. Game 1. Blazers. Will always love the Association. But this is just stupid, man, and this is not that NBA where guys wanted to play 82 games. (Get off my lawn type saying, I know.) Kawhi Leonard is out again and I'm guessing it's not because he's making a personal marketing appearance for Aspiration. And James Harden is out for personal reasons. Jalen Green is set for his Suns debut off injury and that Kevin Durant trade with Houston.

The Clippers have had an uneven start to the new season and now have some other concerns for tonight, specifically James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, both ruled out. The Clips could probably live without Harden, but not Kawhi, whose added dimensions are difficult to replace. Add Norman Powell's offseason departure to Miami and can see Ty Lue's short-term dilemma. We're hardly sure perimeter-oriented Phoenix takes advantage, and totals-wise, this one doesn't seem to have shootout written all over it, with the Suns hoping that G Jalen Green finally makes his debut tonight (we'll sse), while the Clips have performed somewhat erratically. Play Suns-Clippers Under