Phoenix Suns: Victims Of The Ruthless Western Conference?
After Sunday’s blowout loss at home to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Phoenix Suns have a precarious three-game lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder for the eighth playoff spot. The Suns and Thunder are both coming off consecutive losses to tough opponents and neither was able to take advantage of the other’s losses.
The race for the eighth and final playoff spot will be a battle with a somewhat predictable outcome.
The third team that shouldn’t be forgotten is the New Orleans Pelicans, who are actually one game ahead of the Thunder at the moment. They may have a tough time competing in the West though, without starting point guard Jrue Holiday for the next few weeks.
With the top seven seeds pretty much set in stone, the race comes down to the Suns, Pelicans and Thunder fighting for the final seed. This is the state of the brutal Western Conference, with a couple of very good teams not making the playoffs.
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There are many reasons why the Thunder seem to have a much better shot at the eighth seed. The Thunder have the 10th ranked defense in the league and the Suns are ranked 20th. With the Thunder now at full strength, they have a much more potent offense as well.
Another reason the Suns seem like they are destined for disappointment is that they don’t have a franchise player like the Thunder do. One can make the argument that the Thunder have two franchise players. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are two top-10 players in the league and both are capable of single-handedly winning games.
While Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic have improved greatly in the past couple seasons, they haven’t accomplished what Durant and Westbrook have.
One baffling move the Suns made this summer was signing Isaiah Thomas to a multi-year deal. The Suns already had an undersized backcourt and while signing Thomas would bolster their offense, it seemed virtually impossible to play the trio together.
Thomas’ defensive shortcomings would show up down the stretch in a crucial possession against the Houston Rockets. In a tie game, the Rockets had the ball and everyone knew James Harden was going to take the last shot. The Rockets were either going to win or go to overtime, with almost no other possible outcome. Unless the Suns fouled, the Suns would not get the ball back in regulation.
After benching Dragic for receiving a technical foul earlier in the game (which I later learned Jeff Hornacek does when his players get technicals for complaining), Hornacek decided to go with the diminutive 5’9” Isaiah Thomas for the final defensive sequence. In case you missed it, here’s how that played out:
Once James Harden crossed over P.J. Tucker, essentially turning him into dust, he shot over Thomas as if he were a chair and made the game-winner. Why not replace Thomas with the two bigger freakish athletes you have, Gerald Green or Brandan Wright? Coaches routinely make offensive and defensive substitutions at the end of games and this was a glaring mistake that likely cost them the game.
Ultimately, the Phoenix Suns are going to have to play the best basketball of their lives to not give up their three-game lead. With about 40 games left, the Thunder are only two games behind in the loss column. The Thunder have even won both of their head-to-head matchups so far, and all they need to do is win one of their next two games to win the tiebreaker.
With Durant, Westbrook and the championship experience that they have, it’s hard to imagine them not securing the final playoff spot, which would probably make them the scariest eighth seed ever.