The Phoenix Suns have put together a fun little preseason series so far, including a couple of entertaining games against the Brooklyn Nets in China. They split that particular series, but the results there hardly mattered. Instead, it built on a culture that clearly laid its foundation in The Valley, while some role players proved they still belong in the rotation.
The Suns are now back on home soil ahead of a final match against the Los Angeles Lakers, who they defeated before heading to Macau. That was a game in which former first overall pick Deandre Ayton scored a single point, somehow allowing current Suns’ rookie center Khaman Maluach to make two made baskets on the night. This despite the fact that we still have a long way to go on the offensive.
Lakers welcome Luka Doncic against Suns.
With the game between the Lakers and Suns taking place in Phoenix, it has been announced that superstar Luka Doncic makes his preseason shower for Los Angeles. This comes after an offseason where he was the center of media attention for how much weight he seemed to lose before starring at EuroBasket.
Damn man Nico Harrison really created a monster. Luka Doncic went from fat to the cover of Men’s Health magazine đŸ˜ pic.twitter.com/aNDkuPa4nn
— Hater Report (@HaterReport_) July 28, 2025
With LeBron James set to miss the first 10-12 games of the new campaign due to a sciatica problem, this is the ideal final preseason game for the Suns. You can never stop Doncic – especially when his conditioning is the best he’s ever been – but trying to slow him down will test just how far head coach Jordan Ott’s defensive plans are in The Valley.
New signing Dillon Brooks has been committed to preseason matches so far – a welcome change from recent seasons – so he won’t need any extra motivation to go after Doncic either. The rivalry between the Lakers and Suns has unfortunately been quite one-sided this century, and that won’t change this season.
But if there’s one player who wants to know how much it means to get one in the purple and gold, it’s undoubtedly Brooks. Then there’s Devin Booker, who has had his own war of words with Doncic in the past, going back to his days as a Dallas Maverick. Booker is being widely let down by people around the league, and beating Doncic would certainly be a nice way to start the season
Yes, this is just the preseason, but every time Doncic and the Lakers come to town there is added interest. As is the case with these games, the result doesn’t matter. But given the promising aspects of the Suns’ play in what we’ve seen so far, it would be nice to continue that trajectory against Doncic in his first action of the season.
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