Suns ‘fighting’ to avoid playoff play-in games
It’s taken this long into the season for the Phoenix Suns to reach their best record, 41-29. Twelve games above .500 for the first time sounds nice.
The Suns still have the second-toughest remaining schedule and are fighting to escape the play-in tournament, which begins less than a month from now.
After beating Atlanta on Thursday, Phoenix’s second straight win in backto-back home games, Suns coach Frank Vogel immediately quipped that 12 over .500 is “not enough.”
“It is positive, but we gotta keep fighting,” Vogel said. “We want to finish in the top six and the competition is fierce. Some great teams in the Western Conference, so it seems like everybody in the league’s been on a winning streak. I know Sacramento and Pelicans lost tonight (Thursday), but everybody’s been winning and we gotta keep pace …”
The Suns’ latest victory slightly bumped them up from eighth to seventh in the razor-thin Western Conference standings’ fifth through eighth places. The top six automatically make the playoffs, while the next four are in the play-in to see which will emerge as the other two playoff teams.
Following Thursday’s games, the teams in fifth, sixth, and eighth are New Orleans (42-27), Dallas (41-29), and Sacramento (40-29), respectively. Dallas and Phoenix have the same record, but Dallas owns the tiebreaker.
Oklahoma City (48-20), defending world champion Denver (49-21), Minnesota (47-22), and the Los Angeles Clippers (43-25) are the top four in that order.
The preliminary West play-in games decide the seven and eight spots. As of Friday, the 7-8 matchup would be Phoenix against Sacramento to lock the seventh seed, and that game’s loser would face the winner of the 9-10 game, which would put the Los Angeles Lakers (37-32) versus Golden State (36-32) in a single elimination meeting, to secure the eighth spot. But a lot could change.
“It’s just kind of hard to keep up with it all,” said Devin Booker, who scored the game-high 30 points against Atlanta.
“It’s been years of that, and you start looking at other teams, who they’re playing and their matchups, and I just learn to focus on ourselves,” he said. “We obviously want to avoid the play-in, but if the play-in happens then we play. Just control the controllables, keep working on ourselves, keep getting better, and I think we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
Suns’ tough road ahead
The Suns know exactly where they are, and Vogel acknowledged that at Tuesday’s practice.
“We’re in the playoffs before the playoffs,” Vogel said. “All of us want to get into the top six. We are confident that if we are in a play-in game, we will win.”
Phoenix has had 20 different starting lineups because of injuries. It’s Big 3 has played 29 games together, and the Suns are 18-11 with all of them in the lineup.
“You can take it with a grain of salt. You can believe or not believe it. It’s a long year. Things happen,” guard Bradley Beal said. “We’ve played with injuries all year, different lineups, it’s been a roller coaster for sure. That’s how all season’s are. I’m happy that I’m 12 games over .500, and I’ve never been like that in my career, so I’m taking it 100 percent (laughs).”
Beal is referring to his previous 11 years in Washington, where he played in just five postseasons and never made it past the semifinals. Actually, the team’s best marks above .500 were 16 and 14 entering the 2017 and 2018 playoffs.
Phoenix had three previous moments they reached 11 games over .500 this season, on March 11 at Cleveland, Feb. 14 at home versus Detroit entering the AllStar break, and Feb. 29 at home against Houston.
Last year on March 22, the Suns were fourth in the West at 38-34, and entered the playoffs as that seed, the final spot for home court advantage.
The Los Angeles Clippers were the West’s fifth seed Phoenix faced and beat in the first round, whereas the Clippers this season have mostly been fourth the standings.
Phoenix is entering a five-game road trip, beginning with the first two at lastplace San Antonio (15-54) on Saturday and Monday. The next three are at Denver on Wednesday, Oklahoma City next Friday, and New Orleans on Apr. 1.
San Antonio won two straight at Phoenix on Halloween and Nov. 2. Different point in the season as the Suns’ were still without Beal from his lower back issues and figuring things out. The Spurs are led by Rookie of the Year candidate and league’s leading shot-blocker Victor Wembanyama, who dominated the Suns for his season-high 38 points in their last matchup.
The Suns won their last game at Denver on March 5, but needed Kevin Durant to close the win in overtime following Phoenix’s underwhelming fourth quarter, after dominating Denver in the second and third. Plus, Denver has won 13 of its last 15 games, and Nikola Jokic remains in MVP form after already winning two of those awards.
Oklahoma City has beaten Phoenix twice at home in their last two meetings. OKC’s atop the rankings in causing turnovers, have the conference’s best home record (28-7), and the Thunder’s MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is problematic against any defense thrown at him.
New Orleans has won 10 of 14 since the All-Star break. Zion Williamson’s playing well and staying healthy for them this deep into the season for the first time in his five-year career.