Lakers @ Suns Tuesday game thread, December 23rd, 2025

[Mainstreet]

On Tuesday, the Suns play the Lakers at home.

They have split their previous two meetings.

Phoenix is now 15-13 after falling to the Warriors

Lakers are 19-7. They are playing at the Clippers on Saturday.

Location: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, Arizona

When: Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025

Television: Suns+, Arizona's Family 3TV / Arizona's Family Sports

Time: 7:00 PM Arizona Time

Radio: KMVP 98.7 / S: KSUN

Then the Suns go on a four game road trip playing the Pelicans in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday.

Afterward, they play the Wizards on Monday and the Cavaliers on Wednesday.

 

[Carolinacacti]

Fakers got crushed last night

 

[Adrian]

Suns lookahead. Phoenix faces Lakers for third time in December

Phoenix Suns aren't playing on Christmas for the first time since the 2020-21 season after winning just 36 games last season.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[leclerc]

Chalk up another loss. We don't have enough fire power or size. They can't seem to maintain the effort they had at the start of the season. Merry Christmas!

 

[leclerc]

Add to the fact that it is holiday season. Refs will be lining up to gift the Lakers lots of calls. I expect we'll see about the same FT ratio 2:1 or at least 3:2.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Ref blaming two days before the game even begins? Sigh…

 

[angel_ofthe_south]

Fakers got crushed last night

Good! I wonder by whom? Going to ths scores to look.

 

[angel_ofthe_south]

Here is why I do not want to trade Nick Richards: injuries! Potential injuries to Williams or Ighodaro.

They have been nicely lucky so far, but...their luck could turn sour at any time. If that happens, it would become useful to have Richards available. He's not skilled, but if nothing else he's a big body. It seems to be only the Suns guards and wings who get injured this season, but...that could change. I'd rather keep Richards as the proverbial break-glass-in-emergency player at his position. If Maluach were ready to play, I would feel comfortable trading Richards; but Maluach of course isn't ready.

Also, I have no interest whatsoever in that possible trade with the Raptors, because the Suns have no need for a new guard as the Raptors would reportedly offer.

 

[Chaplin]

Ref blaming two days before the game even begins? Sigh…

I won't blame them for a loss, but come on. You don't think there is referee bias for the Lakers?

You are really going out of your way to attack posters just because of this one thing, and only a small handful actually believe the conspiracies.

 

[angel_ofthe_south]

Ref blaming two days before the game even begins? Sigh…

I don't know which is more annoying: whining pre-emptively about officiating or...snideness about someone else whining about officiating. As for the former, my dad used to do it regularly about a different common problem. He'd say something like "You just know the [insert team name] are gonna start playing dirty." I found that tiresome, too.

As for "ref blaming": if lebron james got away with assaulting the referees as well as Dillon Brooks (or whichever Suns player it was that he roughed up), "ref blaming" wasn't so wrong. I didn't complain, but I was incredulous. I would have thought that only Michael Jordan, the biggest meal ticket the league ever had, would be allowed to assault the referees. AFAIK, he never actually did assault referees--that was his teammate Dennis Rodman--but Jordan was allowed to do whatever he wanted. I honestly believe that if Jordan had beaten up anyone on the court, he would have gotten prrrrobably ejected and that's all. No suspension. But lebron james, diminished and at the tail end of his career? There was little financial incentive for the league to allow it.

Eagerness to punish Dillon Brooks' obnoxiousness, that's what it was. If James had picked on any other Suns player as well as referees, he might not have gotten away with it. I think the officials ejected Draymond Green from the Warriors game for exactly the same reason: they can't stand Green because he's a twerp with a far longer and higher-profile reputation for thuggishness than Brooks. Green is surely the most hated player with the league and the referees since Rodman.

 

[mjb21aztd]

Welppppp refs and lebron dreaded lakers again sighh...

Sure dont like suns odds in this gm

Sad vibes in az sports land ((

 

[Cheesebeef]

I won't blame them for a loss, but come on. You don't think there is referee bias for the Lakers?

You are really going out of your way to attack posters just because of this one thing, and only a small handful actually believe the conspiracies.

I’m going out of my way to attack posters by saying “sigh”? And how am I going out of my way? I wasn’t the first to bring up referees. Someone else started talking about the referees two days before a game even started and I responded in kind.

 

[Chaplin]

I’m going out of my way to attack posters by saying “sigh”? And how am I going out of my way? I wasn’t the first to bring up referees. Someone else started talking about the referees two days before a game even started and I responded in kind.

Every post you've made in the past handful of games has been chiding someone else who is upset about the officiating. I don't think the refs caused our losses, but you gotta admit they are awful this year. Maybe more so than normal. We've had at least 3 straight games where there were egregious problems with officiating. Not just on our side, but across the board.

Hell, one ref is being investigated by the league right now.

 

[Adrian]

Booker and the Suns host conference foe Los Angeles | FOX Sports

Phoenix faces Los Angeles in a matchup of Western Conference teams

www.foxsports.com

 

[Mainstreet]

Welppppp refs and lebron dreaded lakers again sighh...

Sure dont like suns odds in this gm

Sad vibes in az sports land ((

It's payback time.

I saved this video just in case Lebron pushes the referee again.

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[Brian in Mesa]

 

[Cheesebeef]

Every post you've made in the past handful of games has been chiding someone else who is upset about the officiating.

Chap… this just isn’t true. You can just skim the GS thread again where there are literally 313 posts in that game thread before I mention the refs, and there are about 10-12 by me before in the 200-313 range I don’t say a word about the refs and I’m just commenting on the game. I ONLY say something when the referee dogpile begins.

 

[Adrian]

Lakers Injury Report: Deandre Ayton Returns, Austin Reaves Questionable, Luka Doncic & Rui Hachimura Out Vs. Suns

Deandre Ayton returns, but Luka Doncic and Rui Hachimura are out while Austin Reaves is questionable for the Los Angeles Lakers.

lakersnation.com

 

[Mainstreet]

Jordan Goodwin is AVAILABLE.

Grayson Allen is DOUBTFUL.

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[Mainstreet]

Luka Dončić, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent are listed as OUT for the Lakers

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[Suns_fan69]

Got to take advantage when teams are missing key players. Hope Phoenix can take care of business.

 

[Mainstreet]

Got to take advantage when teams are missing key players. Hope Phoenix can take care of business.

While I agree, the Suns aren't exactly healthy either.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

no luka to lean on - let's frustrate the ish out of lebron - physically and mentally for all 4 quarters

 

[Mainstreet]

no luka to lean on - let's frustrate the ish out of lebron - physically and mentally for all 4 quarters

Hope you can suit up tonight. You can be Dillon the Villain 3. Need someone to take Lebron out of his game.

Can't afford to lose Brooks or Gillespie.

 

[AzStevenCal]

no luka to lean on - let's frustrate the ish out of lebron - physically and mentally for all 4 quarters

Fine as long as we can keep Brooks from adding to his T collection in the process.