The Phoenix Suns have mostly hovered around the seventh seed in the Western Conference for the last two months, but fans don’t think that will last.
When asked where the team will finish in the standings, more than two-thirds of them think they’ll end up out of the play-in and in the top-six of the West.
I’m typically not surprised by votes on Suns Reacts, but this one got me. While Phoenix has been one of the most surprising teams across the NBA this year, not only have they been struggling of late, but the teams around them in the standings are starting to get healthy and play better basketball.
2-5 in February so far, the Suns are only eight games above .500 for the first time since January. Additionally, the Los Angeles Lakers, who are two spots ahead of the Suns in the standings, have their big three of Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luka Dončić all healthy for the first time since Christmas, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are a spot ahead of Phoenix, are 3-1 since adding Ayo Dosunmu at the trade deadline and have won eight of their last 11.
The good thing for the Suns is that while they are two and a half games behind the Lakers and Wolves, they have the tiebreaker over Minnesota, and are in the drivers seat to have it over the Lakers.
Minnesota has the third-toughest regular season left based on strength of schedule, Los Angeles has the 10th, and Phoenix has the 15th.
For the Suns to get out of the play-in, they’re going have to finish games stronger. Duds like their performance against the Spurs on Thursday out of the break are inevitable, especially against a team they dominated so handily the first two times the team played, but they are going to have to be better down the stretch.
Their losses against the Warriors, Pistons and Heat in the last month are demonstrations of how the team was not able to hit shots when they needed to and pick up important stops. Credit, Devin Booker either didn’t play or finish any of those games, and the team is better down the stretch when he is in the lineup.
With four-straight home games to end the month, the Suns have an opportunity to get back in a rhythm and potentially make some ground in the standings, ending the month against the Lakers.