Memphis\u2019 111-108 win<\/a>.<\/p>\nNow, Khaman Maluach gets a shot to make his mark. The Suns entered the season with Mark Williams (shoulder) sidelined for an extended period, leaving Maluach and Oso Ighodaro to fill the void at center. But Ighodaro is out tonight after suffering an oblique strain in Wednesday\u2019s loss to Portland.<\/p>\n
Already hoping for a leap from Maluach in Year 2, the Suns now need even more from their 2025 lottery pick. Saturday\u2019s game presents a prime opportunity against Golden State\u2019s shorthanded front line.<\/p>\n
4. Steph & Book shooting their shots<\/p>\n
The nightcap also features two of the game\u2019s most prolific shot-makers: Stephen Curry and Devin Booker.<\/p>\n
Curry has led Golden State in scoring in each of its first two games, averaging 23.5 points. But the NBA\u2019s all-time leader in 3-pointers has shot just 29.4% from deep. Could tonight be the night the 3s start falling?<\/p>\n
On the other side, Booker has found success against the Warriors. In his last 15 games against Golden State, the 5-time All-Star has averaged 28.6 points and 5.1 assists, leading Phoenix to nine wins.<\/p>\n
Beyond their scoring brilliance, Curry and Booker share a mutual respect. As Olympic teammates, the two helped Team USA win gold at the 2024 Paris Games, where they developed a lasting friendship.<\/p>\n
That connection was on display last December, when Curry wore Booker\u2019s signature shoes against Phoenix.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s truly hard to put into words,\u201d Booker said afterward. \u201cThinking back to the Olympics and being able to share the floor with him \u2026 building a relationship that lasts a lifetime with somebody that I\u2019ve idolized my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor it to come full circle for him to be competing against me in my shoe \u2013 if anything, I thought it\u2019d be the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the two friends, who also happen to be their franchises\u2019 all-time leading scorers, meet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and the 76ers are off to a 2-0 start after Thursday\u2019s historic comeback. One…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[374839,374838,355,99,258149],"class_list":["post-893938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-4-things-to-watch","tag-bucks-76ers","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-warriors-suns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n