Surprisingly, the Phoenix Suns can avoid a 60-loss season

On February 23, a second consecutive 60-loss season seemed inevitable. But with 11 games remaining, there is a chance the Phoenix Suns can avoid that mark all together.

When the Phoenix Suns lost at the Atlanta Hawks, their 17th consecutive, they had reached a new low.

Not only had that loss continued their franchise-record losing streak, but it was their 50th on the season in only 61 games, the fastest the franchise had ever reached that mark, with still 21 games remaining.

On pace for a 15-67 record (which would break the inaugural season’s franchise-worst 16-66 record), fans even questioned whether 70 losses was a real possibility.

Yet, since then, Phoenix has had a bit of a re-birth. Winners of six of their last ten, the Suns of today do not look like the Suns of February 23, when winning even one  more game on the year would have been more shocking than they team ending the season on a 38-game losing streak.

Today, with 11 games remaining and the team now 17-54, there is a legitimate possibility that the Suns could avoid a 60-loss season all together, finishing with (at worst) 59-losses, which to most fans would actually be a tremendous accomplishment – all things considered.

Beginning this evening (Monday, March 18), the Suns will face off against seven teams over their final 11 who will not make the playoffs: the Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Dallas Mavericks.

Phoenix Suns

Obviously all of those games are winnable, and should they just win those games alone, they will finish with 24 wins on the year, locking a 58-loss season in place, mercifully preventing 60.

Chicago and Cleveland are fighting for two of the top-three spots in the lottery and the best odds

at the number one overall pick, a position the Suns currently hold. Phoenix is absolutely better than than both teams. If there are any “easy” wins on the calendar, these are the two.

Sacramento is a team much like the Suns, young and developing with a core group of talent that could make them a tough out for the next decade. Phoenix has defeated them once already in their three matchups, and while the Kings had been a playoff contender, they have faded and are likely done, meaning this head-to-head will be about pride – but one Phoenix could pull out.

It took three overtimes for the Washington Wizards to defeat the Suns in December. The are without John Wall, they released Markieff Morris, and Trevor Ariza being on that roster should be cause enough for the Suns to take Washington down. That said, they’re still going to be tough, but they are by no means a good team, and with the game in Phoenix, a good opportunity for the Suns to even the score.

With no Marc Gasol, Memphis isn’t as difficult as they once were, and yet they have recently defeated the Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, and Utah Jazz. With two weeks before that game we’ll see how things change and if the Suns can take the season series, which is currently tied, both games having been played in the first month of the season.

Finally, New Orleans and Dallas are going to be two tough matchups for Phoenix down the stretch, even as non-playoff combatants. Both are solid opponents, both will make for good games, but winnable ones as well. Phoenix faces New Orleans at home after just stealing a victory in New Orleans from the jaws of defeat, and the Mavericks’ game takes place on the last game of the season.

The additional four games are against playoff teams, the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz (twice), and Houston Rockets.

The advantage to Phoenix is that none of those are guaranteed lock loses.

The Suns played well against Detroit in their early season loss, losing by only 11 on the road, and the Pistons are far from world beaters, currently sitting at only 36-33.

Phoenix faces the Jazz twice more, and have been blown out by Utah twice this season already. That said, it is generally difficult for teams to sweep a four-game regular season series, and as their final head-to-head is in Phoenix, should Utah win game three, the Suns will certainly be full-on in an attempt to stave off the sweep.

Until March 10, nobody would ever have thought that the 2018-19 Phoenix Suns could possibly beat the Houston Rockets, but then they defeated the Golden State Warriors for the first time in 18 tries, and played Houston very tough on March 15, losing in the waning moments, meaning that, as the old Kevin Garnett adage goes, “anything is possible.”

Should the Suns win just six of their final 11 games, seven of which come against teams who will not make the playoffs and the rest against beatable teams (Houston being the obviously most difficult matchup), they will hold off a second consecutive 60-loss season, something that less than a month ago, appeared to be as much of a lock in the NBA as the Warriors winning the title.