The Phoenix Suns just defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder. So, on one hand, they will be tired when they come to play the Houston Rockets.
On the other hand, teams that beat OKC (and Golden State at the time) always get what I call a “champion bounce.” Usually a win like that gives the team a lot of confidence because they just proved to themselves and everyone else that they can beat the reigning NBA champions. So expect a healthy Phoenix team at the Toyota Center rather than a tired team on the second night of a back-to-back. Phoenix shot 40% from deep last night, and in their previous trip to Houston, they shot a paltry 5-36 (14%) from three. I would expect them to hit a few more triples tonight. Alperen Sengun didn’t play this game, and he won’t play tonight, so more or less the teams should look like they did that night.
The Rockets are coming off a tough loss to the Dallas Mavericks in which they lost Sengun just seconds into the game to an ankle injury. They played without him before this season, with decent results.
7 p.m. CT January 5, 2026
The line (from this article)
Looking to the future because we can
Wednesday night in Portland against the Trail Blazers
