Phoenix Suns remain in playoff race, begin six game home stand Wednesday

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Timothy Slone

Suns Heads Coach Monty Williams addresses the media after practice on Wednesday at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Timothy Slone, Reporter

With 24 games left in the regular season, the Phoenix Suns are still hoping to make a successful playoff push.

As the clock ticks down on the season, #13 seed Phoenix still has a legitimate shot at getting into the playoffs.  Albeit, they are realistically the last team in the Western Conference with a hope of making it to the postseason.

They currently trail #8 seed Memphis by only four games.  The next nearest team, Minnesota, is 10 ½ games out of the last playoff spot.

It also seems that the #8 spot is the only hope for the Suns.  #7 Dallas is seven games ahead of Memphis and virtually uncatchable at this point.

Even with tonight’s 92-102 loss to L.A. Clippers, Phoenix, didn’t fall any further behind Memphis, who lost to Houston.

The road to the playoffs won’t be easy for Phoenix, who have one of the toughest remaining schedules in the league.

12 of their last games are against teams over .500 and 17 of the last 24 are against teams who are in playoffs contention.  They will have the advantage of playing seven of their next 10 games within the friendly confines of Talking Stick Resort Arena.  They’ll look to create momentum against teams like, the Pistons, Warriors and Timberwolves during that stretch.

Even with a tough road to the playoffs ahead, the Suns still have a lot of positives to take away from an injury-riddled season. They have five more wins than they did last year with two dozen games left.  Devin Booker was selected to his first All-Star Game, after Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was unable to play, due to injury.  The Suns are also the youngest team in the NBA, with an average age of just 24.49 years.

After practice at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Wednesday, Head Coach Monty Williams commented about the success the team has experienced this season.

“When healthy, we know how good of a team we can be, it showed at the start of the season,” Williams said.

The Suns look to recapture that good play along with some momentum for their playoff run as they host Detroit and Golden State during their next five consecutive home games.