Suns at Clippers
Eric Bledsoe of the Phoenix Suns hasn’t had much luck in his last two visits to Staples Center to play the Los Angeles Clippers, the team he played for his first three NBA seasons. He’ll try to turn things around Monday when the Suns visit the Clippers for the second time this season. Bledsoe missed all six of his field-goal attempts and scored one point in a 13-point loss last month, and last December suffered a knee injury in his first visit to the Clippers and missed the next 2 ½ months.
The Clippers have won seven in a row and climbed atop the league lead in field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage after shooting 52.9 and converting 14-of-29 from beyond the arc in Saturday’s 20-point win against the visiting New Orleans Pelicans. J.J. Redick has scored at least 20 points in the last three games, a first for the nine-year shooting guard, and he’s 13-for-21 from long range in that span. The Suns could be getting some relief as guard Isaiah Thomas, who averages 15.5 points, could return after missing the last six games with a right ankle injury.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona (Phoenix), FSN West 2 (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE SUNS (12-9): Goran Dragic continues to look like the player he did last season when he averaged 20.3 points and shot 50.5 percent from the floor. He averaged just over 14 points through the first 17 games but is up to 24.2 in the last four. He took a step back from his exceptional three-game stretch with 13 points on 5-for-14 shooting in Saturday’s loss to the undermanned Houston Rockets, and has struggled in 22 career games against Los Angeles, averaging 11.5 points and shooting 43.1 percent from the field.
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (14-5): One reason Bledsoe and Dragic have likely struggled against the Clippers in recent games is they spend so much energy trying to stay in front of Chris Paul. The latter scored 32 points on 10-for-13 shooting and distributed nine assists when these teams met last month, and he’s been just as solid of late, shooting 14-for-23 the last two games with 26 assists and three turnovers. Paul is on pace to lead the league in assist-to-turnover ratio for a third straight season.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Paul played 50 minutes the only time in his career in a double-overtime victory against the Suns in February 2008 while playing for the New Orleans Hornets.
2. Clippers F Blake Griffin shot a career-high 87.5 percent (14-for-16) from the field when these teams last met in March.
3. Suns C Miles Plumlee averages 22.9 minutes but less than one free throw a game.