The Phoenix Suns came into Wednesday night's home matchup with the Boston Celtics with geniune momentum behind them for the first time in 2025. Winners of four straight - and with Jayson Tatum missing for the Celtics - this looked like a real opportunity to cement their spot in the play-in tournament, with only a handful of games in the regular season remaining.
Instead the Suns were blown out 132-102 - and despite Kevin Durant again being awesome and finishing with 30 points - the 3-point disparity was too much for the Suns to make up. The Celtics taking 52 and making 42.3 percent of them - while the Suns could only muster 41 - and finishing the night having connected on 31.7 percent of those shots.
Their play-in hopes took a significant hit with this tough loss.
That statement is not meant in a dramatic way to whip fans into a frenzy either. The Suns have been much better in recent games - and in surrounding Durant and Devin Booker with some 3-and-D talent - appeared to have found a way to win tougher games. The fact this was being achieved without Bradley Beal was a concern, but that problem will have to wait until the summer to try and fix.
The reason this was a tough loss is because the Suns have given them essentially no room for error, meaning every loss at this point is going to hit even harder. They still have the toughest remaining schedule in the league, and at this moment in time hold the 10th spot in the Western Conference by virtue of owning the tie-breaker over the Dallas Mavericks.
Contrast that with what is going on in Texas, and the Mavericks have the 12th easiest run-in of anybody in the league. Included in those fixtures are games against the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors, while games versus the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks can go each way depending on what version of those teams turns up.
Their best player in Anthony Davis is already day-to-day again with injury having just come back after a month out - but as we've discussed before - he personally is surely going to want to try and drag the Mavericks to the playoffs. To make the defeat to the Celtics even worse, the Sacramento Kings above them recently got Domantas Sabonis back from injury as well.
The Suns will see the Celtics again next week - while there are meetings with the Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves before that - and every single one of those games is a must win. Ironically this team might be able to steal one of the key ingredients of the Celtics' success, and use it to their own advantage.
Last season they had two players in Grayson Allen and Beal who were top five in the league in 3-point percentage. This season they're taking the 12th most per game (37.7), with the Celtics unsurprisingly leading the way at an insane 48.3 each night. It is not as simple as taking more shots from deep - you have to make them - but they have the personnel to make this a priority down the stretch.
