The Suns will be playing the Mavs for the fourth time this season, coming off a heartbreaking expected loss against Oklahoma City last night. Marcin Gortat had a career high, et cetera, et cetera. Unfortunately, he, Steve Nash and Jared Dudley also played 40 minutes each, coming into this back end of a back to back. This can’t be good, especially for old man Nash.

The Mavs, however, are going through a bad stretch of five losses in a row. Part Lamar Odom, part fatigue, part no-Tyson Chandler, the Mavs don’t seem like the team they were. They look to win with the Suns, but it might not be as easy as last time.

Marcin Gortat burned the Mavs twice this season already. And that was before the rest of the team started stepping up. While yes, they failed against OKC, the best team in the Western Conference, there’s nothing on the Mavs that can stop them from stepping up tonight. Hopefully, Alvin Gentry recognizes the dominant force that Marcin Gortat is capable of being when put in the right position and will continue to feed him the ball, and subsequently open things up for his teammates.

Speaking of centers, Mavs center Brendan Haywood is questionable for tonight, and while Brendan Wright and Ian Mahinmi are serviceable backups, one might question their ability to stay in the game. Mahinmi had a lot of trouble defending the pick and roll in the first matchup, and that was back when Gortat was wearing a splint. Don’t expect him to be any better against a motivated Gortat, riding a high of ridiculously good play.

However, with a second night of a back-to-back for Phoenix, I’m going to tell you what I always tell people for Suns game. It’s certainly possible, but don’t count on it. Would be nice if the Suns won this last matchup of the season for… Honour… I guess.