NBA Games of the Week: Team names only

BOSTON - NOVEMBER 1: Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving and Celtics guard Jaylen Brown celebrate Brown's 26 foot three pointer on an assist by Irving for the 78-54 lead during the third quarter. The Boston Celtics host the Sacramento Kings in a regular season NBA basketball game at TD Garden in Boston on Nov. 1, 2017. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /

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WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 01: TJ Warren /

Wednesday, Nov. 8: Miami at Phoenix, 9:00 p.m. ET

This game was the inspiration for this week’s piece. (The Suns are responsible for two of the three so far this year.)

This matchup is perhaps the most easily fitting into the theme. The sun, through some process entirely too complicated for me to grasp though I tried reading the Wikipedia page for an hour, launches enough heat that gives us life. It is the most important source of energy to Earth and without it, we’d be talking about basketball in absolute ice and darkness.

The Suns started their season in ice and darkness, but since they fired coach Earl Watson three games into the season, they’ve won four out of six games, including wins over the Jazz and Wizards. In the five games since Watson’s firing, the Suns are sixth in net rating. They’re still trying to unload Eric Bledsoe, but Phoenix is playing hard for interim coach Jay Triano. Dragan Bender, still a project, is showing he belongs in the NBA.

For the Heat, it’ll be their fourth game of a six-game road trip. They’re 3-5, but had a tough three-game stretch where they lost to Boston, San Antonio and Minnesota, all teams we’d agree are and should be better than Miami. The Heat are a bottom-third team offensively, but with super wiz coach Erik Spoelstra, their training staff and how they finished 2016-17, you can’t count out a run is coming from them.

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