The Phoenix Suns are entering a five-game home stand and a fairly weak stretch in their schedule. It is time for them to start a winning streak.
It might not feel like it after being monumentally outmatched against the Los Angeles Lakers Monday night, but things might be looking up for the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns are currently 13-21, but have won two of their last three games and finally have their full complement of players available.
Well, almost.
It turns out Frank Kaminsky is dealing with a knee issue and is doubtful Friday night against the New York Knicks, but in good news, Ricky Rubio, who limped off the court in the fourth quarter of the aforementioned Lakers game, is probable.
#Suns officially listing Ricky Rubio (hip soreness) as probable to play tomorrow vs. New York. Frank Kaminsky (knee) is doubtful.
— Gina Mizell (@ginamizell) January 2, 2020
The core elements are there now, and the Suns are about to begin a five-game home stand that features exclusively winnable games. In fact, they may be favored in every one of them.
After facing the Knicks Friday night, they have the Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, and the Charlotte Hornets on the horizon. It’s not inconceivable the Suns sweep this entire home stand.
From there, it doesn’t get much more difficult as the Suns face the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks (again) before running into the likely-to-be-favored Boston Celtics.
This all culminates to seven straight games where the Suns could and arguably should win. But, as Suns fan know all too well, this is the NBA and more poignantly, these are the Phoenix Suns. Anything could happen in any given game.
So, realistically, if the Suns were to even go 5-2 in these next seven games, that would put them at 18-23 going into the Celtics game.
Let’s say they leave that game with an 18-24 record, their next four games are against the San Antonio Spurs (twice), the Memphis Grizzlies (again), and the Indiana Pacers.
That’s not exactly a murderer’s row.
The point is the entire month of January is chock full of winnable games and now that the Suns have (mostly) all their players back, they are in a position to inch very close to the 0.500 mark by month’s end.
The 8th place in the Western Conference appears to be something that no other team is seizing at the moment, and the Suns have it within their grasps over the next several weeks.
Time for them to go grab it. It’s now or never.