Make Or Break! Suns Face Crucial Stretch That will Define Their Season
There is once again life (or so it seems) in the efforts to salvage the 2024-25 season for the Phoenix Suns after a convincing 122-106 triumph over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.
Phoenix put together what was nearly a flawless wire-to-wire performance – save for a lapse in the second half of quarter two.
The Suns defense was the most active, communicative, and connected that it has been in months. The scoring attack was balanced. The squad displayed an elite level of ball movement that lead to 24 three-point hits.
These developments shouls serve the Suns well in the next week – if they can put together a sustained stretch of quality basketball.
The next three contests for Phoenix are all prime opportunities to pad victories in an effort to catch the Dallas Mavericks (1.5 games back) and perhaps even the Kings (2.5 back) – as they are set to play teams in disarray.
Phoenix travels to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon – Los Angeles is going to be without LeBron James and will likely not have Luka Doncic either.
The Suns should have an absolute advantage in this particular setting, but the Lakers nearly defeated a full-strength Denver Nuggets squad last night behind the efforts of Austin Reaves – Phoenix cannot take this matchup lightly.
Phoenix is set to play the Toronto Raptors on Monday night at home in a game that could serve as revenge for the loss in Toronto three weeks ago – said revenge is non-negotiable, the Suns absolutely have to split the season series.
The last contest in the calm before the storm is the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. Phoenix escaped with a victory in Chicago before dropping the game to Toronto – they should be able to secure the season sweep, as the Bulls are seemingly approaching the status of key players in a caution manner moving forward.
The games succeeding these three matchups are absolutely brutal – Phoenix will solely play playoff-bound squads between March 21 and April 9.
The schedule in question:
March 21: Cleveland Cavaliers
March 24: Milwaukee Bucks
March 26: Boston Celtics
March 28: @ Minnesota Timberwolves
March 30: Houston Rockets
April 1: @ Milwaukee
April 4: @ Boston
April 6: @ New York Knicks
April 8: Golden State Warriors
April 9: Oklahoma City Thunder
The word “gauntlet” doesn’t even begin to describe this stretch. Although the Mavericks are fading very quickly into obscurity following the harsh string of injuries, the Suns must hold up their own end of the bargain – it feels like 38 wins is a safe barometer to secure the 10 seed.
Wins over the Lakers, Raptors, and Bulls place Phoenix at 34 wins – which would mean that they would only need to finish the season 4-8 to match the 38-victory goal.
That certainly isn’t inconceivable – but even a single loss in this “easier” slate of contests puts the team in peril of facing the utmost humiliating fate – missing the play-in tournament altogether.
Only time will tell how the Suns respond to a key victory.
