THE Phoenix Suns must make hay as long as they can to try to climb the standings, starting Saturday with the first of two games in three nights against the host. San Antonio Spurs.
The Suns (41-29) are virtually tied with the Dallas Mavericks for sixth place in the Western Conference with 12 games remaining. Phoenix would lose the tiebreaker with Dallas and has the toughest remaining schedule in the West, facing 10 straight playoff teams after the two games at the Alamo City.
This makes it imperative to beat the unfortunate Spurs (15-55).
“We obviously want to avoid the play-in, but if the play-in happens, then we play,” Suns star Devin Booker said. “Just control the controllables, keep working on ourselves, keep improving and I think we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
Phoenix travels to San Antonio on the heels of a 128-115 home win over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. Booker scored 30 points to propel the Suns to their sixth victory in their last nine games. Eric Gordon scored 21 points coming off the bench, Kevin Durant contributed 19, Royce O’Neale added 14, Grayson Allen added 13 and Bradley Beal had 12 points and nine assists.
The Suns made 55.4 percent of their shots from the floor and drained 22 of their 41 attempts from beyond the arc in Thursday’s win. This is the first time this season that Phoenix has played 12 games above .500.
“It’s positive, but we have to keep fighting,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “We want to finish top six and the competition is fierce. There are some great teams in the Western Conference, so it seems like everyone in the league has been on a winning streak and we have to keep up.”
San Antonio is the last team in the West and already eliminated from the playoffs despite the contributions of rookie Victor Wembanyama.
The Spurs are playing the seventh game of an eight-game season at home following a 99-97 loss to the undermanned Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. San Antonio seemed headed for certain defeat in the final 30 seconds before three-pointers from Devin Vassell and Tre Jones, the latter with 19 seconds left, tied the game at 97.
The Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. hit a floater with 1.2 seconds left for the deciding points, and Wembanyama’s wild 35-foot attempt at the buzzer didn’t even draw an iron.
“When it comes to losing on the last possession, it’s a tough feeling,” Jones said afterward. “But when a team comes in like that, as hurt as they were, and we let them outplay us, it’s really difficult.”
Wembanyama led the Spurs with 31 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots. Vassell added 27 points and Jones had 16 for San Antonio, which has lost five of its last six games.
“If you hold a team to 99, you should win a lot of games,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “But if you give up 20 points on turnovers and you shoot 18 percent (from 3), that’s going to make it tough for you. End of story. It’s got nothing to do with one play here, one play there . It’s about the whole thing together.”
San Antonio needs to win six of its final 12 games to surpass the franchise’s all-time worst record of 20-62 set in 1996-97. Nine of the Spurs’ remaining games will be against teams currently scheduled for the playoffs.
–Field level media
Copyright 2024 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and the Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
