It’s quite rare that a team puts on a performance so awful that it warrants further inquisition. The Suns’ loss to the Houston Rockets on Sunday night was so bad that it did exactly that. We’ll have a closer look into Phoenix’s nightmarish season, along with our regularly scheduled NBA programming.

Here’s what we've got today:

• NBA Quick Hitters

• MLB Game Spotlight: Braves vs. Dodgers

• A Closer Look at the Meltdown of the Phoenix Suns

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NBA Quick Hitters

🔹 Sharp Money Alert: For once, money is coming in against the Lakers in their matchup against the Rockets. Los Angeles has moved from a 5-point favorite to -3.5. Houston is coming off of a back-to-back, but their game against the Suns can hardly be described as taxing. We’ll ride with the Rockets to cover.

🔹 Odds Boost to Grab: Sleeper Picks is currently offering a 100% deposit match up to $1,500, compared to a 50% deposit match from Underdog. If you need a new book, Sleeper is worth a gander.

🔹 Trap Game Warning: The Heat are taking 80% of the action as 6.5-point favorites against Washington. It’s hard to believe that we’re recommending a bet on this game, but fading the public is just too tempting. The Wizards are at home and the Heat are frankly not good enough to warrant such a wide spread.

MLB Game Spotlight: Braves vs. Dodgers

Spring has officially sprung with the start of the MLB season. Two of the best teams in the league will open their series as the Braves head out to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers.

Pitching Matchups

Dodgers: RHP Tyler Glasnow

Glasnow played for the Dodgers last season, but an injury marred the majority of his 2024 campaign, a campaign in which he was pitching excellently. The tall righty will make his first start of the season against an Atlanta lineup that hasn’t seen much of the ball through its first four games. It’s fair to expect some rust, but Glasnow pitched well in Spring Training, and now he’ll get a crack at a colder-than-ice batting order at home. He should put together a quality start at the very least.

Braves: RHP Grant Holmes

Holmes, a key piece of Atlanta’s bullpen in 2024, will make the transition to the rotation in this one. He moonlit as a starter last season posting numbers that were far worse than his stats as a reliever. Only one of his seven starts lasted longer than five innings, with Holmes being pulled after four in the majority of them. It’s hard to expect a great outing from him against a loaded Dodgers lineup that has been pretty solid against right-handed pitching.

Offensive Players to Watch

Dodgers C Will Smith

Over five starts behind the dish, Smith has amassed five hits in 12 at-bats, including a home run and a double. He’s the hottest hitter Los Angeles has and he should continue to make an impact here.

Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani

It feels like cheating to include Ohtani here, but it’s necessary, especially because of the matchup with Holmes. Atlanta’s starter allowed lefties to hit .271 against him in 2024 compared to .236 for right-handed hitters. He also allowed a significantly higher OBP to southpaws, and Ohtani is the most dangerous of them all.

Braves DH Marcell Ozuna

The going is tough at the plate for Atlanta, evidenced by the fact that their hottest hitter, Ozuna, is batting .222 through four games. The sample size is obviously tiny, but with the rest of the lineup batting so poorly, Ozuna will have to come through in key spots to help put runs on the board.

A Look at the Meltdown of the Phoenix Suns

Coming into the season, the Suns boasted a roster of two top-15 players, an experienced center, and a solid third option in Bradley Beal. This formula seemed to be enough through the first eleven games, of which the Suns won nine.

Fast forward to March 4th. The Suns are 28-33, with eight losses in their last ten games. The aforementioned center, Jusuf Nurkic, fell out of the rotation and was released thanks to consistently poor effort. Bradley Beal, the recipient of $251 million, has been away from the team with injury for a considerable amount of time, smiling on the sidelines through the brutal stretch of defeats.

The rotation is filled with inexperienced, lower-grade players forced into serious minutes in support of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. A game with the Los Angeles Clippers looms, one that Phoenix seems unlikely to be competitive in.

The Clippers are only three-point favorites, but they jump to an early lead, heading into the halftime locker room with a 16-point advantage. Phoenix allows constant open looks at the hoop, including an egregious sequence in which the Clippers inbounded a dead ball only to find center Ivica Zubac wide open under the rim. His defender, Nick Richards, had failed to run back on defense, allowing an easy layup. A tense exchange between Durant and head coach Mike Budenholzer follows, the frustration apparent from the future Hall-of-Famer.

That frustration seems to light a fire under the Suns as they stormed back in the second half behind a monster outing from Durant. The Clippers, as they are prone to do, choke the lead completely as Phoenix’s defense begins to fight and claw for every possession. Backup guard Collin Gillespie hits two threes off the bench to punctuate the comeback victory, 119-117.

A comeback win like that should have been a turning point for the Suns. Their veteran leader jostled the coach around a bit to great effect, igniting some much-needed passion amongst his teammates. That change showed during a brief four-game winning streak, but it wouldn’t last. The Suns have once again lost three games in a row, allowing 132, 124, and 148 points in each respective defeat.

148 points is a ridiculous number to allow, even against an adequate opponent in the Houston Rockets. The fashion in which it happened was almost a mirror image of the first half against the Clippers at the beginning of the month. Zero defensive effort, hustle, or sense of urgency from Phoenix.

Every possession yielded a dunk, an open look from three, or a trip to the free throw line for the Rockets. It was, without exaggerating, one of the worst efforts we have seen in the NBA in recent memory.

To make matters even worse, Durant left the game with an ankle injury and did not return. With him, Phoenix’s chances of the postseason look dubious at best. Without him, the season is over.

The Suns are currently 1.5 games back from the final play-in seed. Only one game remaining on their schedule is against an opponent below them in the rankings. Five are against teams that will make the playoffs outright. It looks to be another failed campaign for the Suns, one that can accurately be pinned on the devastatingly poor efforts of the coaching staff and players.

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