Portland @ Phoenix preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 11, 2017 ) Portland 113, Phoenix 104

The Phoenix Suns hosting the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday might involve more tension than a normal season-opener after an altercation between the teams during the preseason led to a suspension. Trail Blazers star shooting guard C.J. McCollum will sit out the opener while serving a one-game suspension for leaving the bench area.

McCollum, who averaged 23 points last season and is a key to Portland's hopes of returning to the playoffs, was trying to de-escalate the situation after some pushing and shoving between Blazers rookie Caleb Swanigan and Suns center Alex Len on Oct. 11. “You never want to miss games, especially like that to start the season," McCollum told the team's website. "You work so hard to prepare for the season, you go through a lot of preseason games that don’t mean anything and then you miss a regular season game because of an incident that you weren’t even involved in. There’s nothing I can do about it now but move forward and learn from it." The Suns are trying to learn as well and enter the season with the NBA's youngest roster at an average age of 24.5. Phoenix shut down several of its veteran players in the second half last season and ended up with the No. 4 overall draft pick, adding 20-year-old small forward Josh Jackson to a talented mix.

TV: 10 p.m. ET, NBCS Northwest (Portland), FS Arizona (Phoenix)

ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (2016-17: 41-41): One reason Portland believes it can take a step forward in 2017-18 and possibly make a deep run in the playoffs is the presence of center Jusuf Nurkic, who averaged 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds in 20 games with the team after arriving in a trade from the Denver Nuggets and is set to play his first full season with the Trail Blazers. Nurkic, who suffered a non-displaced fibula fracture late in the season and was not much help in the first-round loss to the Golden State Warriors last spring, is over the leg injury but is going through the league's concussion protocol after taking a hit in the preseason finale. The Bosnian big man provides a solid inside counterpart to McCollum and point guard Damian Lillard, who averaged a career-high 27 points on 44.4 percent shooting in 2016-17.

ABOUT THE SUNS (2016-17: 24-58): Jackson joins forward Marquese Chriss, 20, forward Dragan Bender, 19, point guard Tyler Ulis, 21, and shooting guard Devin Booker, 20, as the core of the team's future. Point guard Eric Bledsoe, 27, is the elder statesman of the group along with center Tyson Chandler, 35, and small forward Jared Dudley, 32, and he is hoping for a fully-healthy season. Bledsoe was averaging 21.1 points and 6.3 assists in 66 games before being shut down with a knee injury and failed to score in double digits in the preseason despite logging more than 20 minutes in each of the five games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The teams split two matchups in the preseason but the Trail Blazers took three of the four regular-season meetings in 2016-17.

2. Portland PF Noah Vonleh (shoulder) will miss at least the first two weeks.

3. Phoenix SF T.J. Warren (bruised lower back) is not expected to play Wednesday.

PREDICTION: Trail Blazers 123, Suns 119