Phoenix Suns: 3 reasons this time might be different

2. The quality of competition

The Suns’ 1-7 start featured a brutal schedule. Their recent competition has been comprised of some of the best teams in the league. Their one successful stretch of the season from Dec. 13-26, when they went 5-2? Not so much.

During that seven-game span, the Suns beat the Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, while losing to the Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets. Only the Celtics and Nets are still currently in the playoff picture, or even above .500.

Over the last nine games, the Suns have beaten a Miami Heat team that’s won six of its last nine games, a playoff-desperate Los Angeles Lakers squad, the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks, an admittedly bad Knicks team, and the West-leading Golden State Warriors in their own house. They pummeled those Knicks and became the first team to beat Milwaukee twice this year.

Even their losses have been far more tolerable. A 14-point loss to the New Orleans Pelicans with Anthony Davis on a minutes restriction isn’t great, but the Suns simply match up poorly with teams that have stacked frontcourts like that AD-Julius Randle pairing.

The Utah Jazz fit that same category, so even though that 17-point home loss looks bad on paper, it was a three-point game heading into the fourth quarter before a very good opponent simply started capitalizing on its mismatches.

A loss on the road to the Portland Trail Blazers, especially with the way they battled back at the end, is understandable. So too is being outlasted by the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center thanks to an MVP-caliber performance from James Harden.

For the majority of the season, when the Suns fell behind by double-digits, they’d hang their heads and give up. The body language dramatically shifted, the effort waned and dumb mistakes became the norm. Now, they’ve been able to battle back and not only keep games competitive, but actually win them, like they did against Milwaukee and Golden State after trailing big early on.

Their plus/minus is telling. For the season, it’s a dismal -9.0, which ranks 29th in the NBA. Over the last nine games, despite losing two games by 17 and 14, it’s only -0.9. It’s still a negative, which is nothing to celebrate, but an improvement of 8.1 points against an imposing gauntlet of opponents speaks volumes about how much more competitive Phoenix has been lately.