Mavs-Suns preview: Star power for both sides in matinee match

Texans are a hard group to convince about certain things.

That’s why we can’t wait to see the Phoenix Suns for ourselves when they visit the Mavericks on Sunday, even if we’ll need an early wake-up call to do it.

We want some hard evidence about what Kevin Durant looks like in a Suns’ uniform. We want to see if they really did instantly become favorites to win the Western Conference when they traded for the 13-time All-Star last month.

And we want to see how the Mavericks stack up, at least for one game, against this new-look powerhouse that is packed with sensational talent. The Mavericks and Suns meet on national television at noon Sunday.

Durant is as good as any scorer in the NBA. Devin Booker ain’t too shabby, either. And Chris Paul should have a field day dishing the ball to those two and center Deandre Ayton.

“They’re different than the last three times we played them,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “They’ve got All-Stars at three positions. I should say it could be four with Ayton. You look at Chris Paul, Booker and Ayton and KD, they’re really good and they’re well-coached. This is going to be a good test for us.”

The Mavericks don’t have to bow down to anybody when it comes to star power. Luka Dončić now has the superstar teammate he’s always wanted with Kyrie Irving. And the pairing seemed to gain some traction on Thursday after a few growing pains together in their first few games. Against Philadelphia, Dončić had 42 points and Irving had 40. They became the first pair of Mavericks to eclipse the 40-point mark in the same game.

That won’t happen every night. But you get the feeling as the season continues to dwindle that the Mavericks’ backcourt is going to have to go off for big numbers on most nights for the Mavericks to win.

The matinee event (noon tipoff, if we haven’t made that clear) also will feature a reunion for Irving and Durant. Until a month ago, they were teammates in Brooklyn and, at one point, they thought they had a championship roster. That changed when James Harden was traded to Philadelphia in 2022 and the dismantlement became complete last month when Durant and Irving both were traded and the rebuilding process began in Brooklyn.

The Suns were the No. 1 team in the regular season last year in the West. But the Mavericks took them out in the second round of the playoffs. Now, both teams are different. It should be an entertaining measuring stick for both.

Here’s a few other things to watch for in today’s match:

• In his first two games with the Suns, Durant has been relentlessly efficient. He has hit 17-of-25 shots (68 percent) and averaged 21.5 points and has added 7.5 rebounds and 4 assists per game. He’s also played in just 29 minutes on average as he returns from a right knee injury he suffered with Brooklyn that kept him out since Jan. 8.
• This is what Booker had to say about Durant after his first game with his new teammate: “This is one of those moments that doesn’t really feel real. I mean, it’s just every time he shoots the ball, it’s just so effortless. You can see defenders trying their hardest to contest or fight over a screen, and he just looks unbothered, unfazed.”
• The Suns are led by Booker’s 27 points per game and Paul’s 9 assists per night. In the trade to get Durant, they gave up Mikal Bridges and his 17 points per game, Cameron Johnson and draft picks.
• Ayton never seems to do enough to please Suns fans, but he’s averaging 18.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game.
• This is the end of the Suns’ four-game tripe that started with a l04-101 loss at Milwaukee, but since Durant began playing has featured wins at Charlotte and Chicago.
• Davis Bertāns has been upgraded to probable. The 6-10 shooter has been out for the last 10 games with a strained left calf. The Suns were without Terrence Ross in Friday’s win over Chicago. Ross, you may remember, was a target of the Mavericks when he entered the buyout market, but he chose the Suns over the Mavericks.
• The Mavericks have won two of the first three meetings with the Suns this season and a win Sunday would give them the season series, which could come in handy in the event of tiebreakers in the crowded Western Conference standings.

PHOENIX SUNS (35-29) at DALLAS MAVERICKS (33-31)

• When: Noon, Sunday.
• Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas.
• TV: ABC (Channel 8).
• Radio:1 FM, 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish).

Twitter: @ESefko