Pistons at Suns
The Phoenix Suns need to take advantage of a six-game homestand if they want to make a run at a playoff spot in the Western Conference and already squandered one opportunity. The Suns will try to improve to 1-1 on the homestand when they host the Detroit Pistons on Friday.
Phoenix, which earned an impressive 131-111 victory at Utah on Monday, was playing at home for the first time since Feb. 12 on Wednesday and came out flat, shooting 39.1 percent from the floor in a 102-92 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. "The level of competitive nature for us was high," Suns coach Monty Williams told reporters. "Coming off a road trip I didn't expect that kind of energy and it was there tonight. We just could not make a shot. You look at our numbers in the second and third quarters and I think that's where it got away from us." The Pistons are losers of seven straight and dropped the first two of their four-game road trip at Portland and Denver while trying to integrate several young players into the rotation. "I know we've got a lot of youth," Detroit coach Dwane Casey told reporters after the 115-98 setback in Denver on Tuesday. "I thought we were in (G League affiliate) Grand Rapids a couple of times, but that's part of the deal."
TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: FS Detroit, FS Arizona
ABOUT THE PISTONS (19-41): Detroit had two players on 10-day contracts in the rotation on Tuesday along with second-year shooting guard Khyri Thomas, who logged 14 minutes off the bench in his first game since November after recovering from a foot injury. "He's got to get in game shape," Casey told reporters of Thomas, who scored three points on 1-of-4 shooting. "He was on a minutes limitation. He and all of our young guys have to get in NBA shape and they're not there yet. It's work, and some of it is compounded with injuries, so now you're fighting that. Khyri's one of our smarter players, but he's got a lot of things he's fighting against." Point guard Derrick Rose - the lone healthy player over 30 on the roster - scored 20 points against Denver to reach the 20-point mark for the first time this month.
ABOUT THE SUNS (24-35): All-Star guard Devin Booker was held to 14 points on 5-of-19 shooting and went 1-of-8 from beyond the arc on Wednesday, part of a 9-of-34 effort from long range for Phoenix, but did not sound discouraged after the contest. "That's a really good team over there, (so) to lose by 10, especially the way we shot the ball and especially me personally, the way I shot the ball, to still be in the game and have a chance and keep fighting all the way until the end," Booker told reporters. "You see Coach calling timeouts down to 10 seconds left, that's the demeanor and approach of our team." The Suns sit 4 1/2 games behind the eighth-place Memphis Grizzlies in the West and will play three sub-.500 teams on the homestand but also face the top two teams from the East - Milwaukee and Toronto.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Suns SF Kelly Oubre Jr. (knee) sat out Wednesday and is day-to-day.
2. Pistons PF Christian Wood recorded a double-double in five of the last seven games.
3. Detroit owns a six-game winning streak in the series, including a 116-108 home triumph on Feb. 5.