5-On-5: What Has Keyed Phoenix Suns’ Turnaround?
5. Are you personally a believer in the Suns playoff chances?
Bourguet: The Suns have shown signs of life recently, which is always a welcome sight for such a young team. But Phoenix currently trails the Oklahoma City Thunder by three games for the eighth spot, and they have a nightmarish death march of a remaining schedule to deal with. That, combined with the way Russell Westbrook has become human napalm, leads me to believe the Suns will finish just short of the postseason once again.
Chasen: Unlikely, but possible. The Suns really needed a Thunder loss to Atlanta. That would’ve been huge.
Hann: Three games back of the Thunder with 11 games to play with the hardest remaining schedule in the NBA. You do the math. The Suns have done a great job in their recent surge of staying afloat and keeping things interesting, but it’s simply going to be too little too late. Say the Thunder go 5-6 in their last 11 games, the Suns would have to go 9-2 in that same time span to overtake them in the standings.
Saar: As the eternal optimist, I would say yes, I am continually holding out hope. I just don’t see Westbrook keeping Phoenix at bay by himself. The Suns still have a matchup with OKC and Westbrook has got to be tired now. But that’s probably my fandom talking there.
Harris: Well now they are in ninth place and are three games behind OKC. With Knight coming back and Bledsoe playing great a playoff run would not be too far fetched. Another thing to watch for is the Suns schedule, which features multiple great teams. However, in their last two games they have beaten both the Rockets and the Mavs, so it will be interesting to see if they can match their play against the other quality teams on the schedule.
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