{"id":126998,"date":"2025-03-05T10:30:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=126998"},"modified":"2025-03-05T10:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:04:56","slug":"suns-dramatic-comeback-late-season-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/05\/suns-dramatic-comeback-late-season-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns Hope Dramatic Comeback Can Fuel Late-Season Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns<\/a> needed a win badly, and they got it in unlikely circumstances<\/a> with a 23-point<\/a> comeback at home to the LA Clippers<\/a> on Tuesday night. Winning by two, it was a remarkable turn of events for a Suns team that was being booed by their own fans just minutes before their resurgence began. After producing a strong finish to the first quarter, they fell apart in the second, leading to a 16-point deficit at halftime.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, a poor third-quarter team did not stray from the course. The Suns have a -7.3 net rating in third quarters this season \u2013 the fifth-worst<\/a> in the NBA. Their defensive rating of 121.8 is the third-worst<\/a>. In fact, their overall numbers in the second half have been concerning, they rank seventh-worst<\/a> (-4.2) and fifth-worst<\/a> (117.9) in each of those categories respectively. Down 19, it was the largest deficit<\/a> to start the fourth quarter that the Suns had overcome in franchise history. They have mostly Kevin Durant<\/a> and an improbable source in Collin Gillespie<\/a> to thank, who combined for 29 points in the final period.<\/p>\n

Suns Hope Dramatic Comeback Can Fuel Late-Season Surge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Suns Need to be Consistent After Comeback<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It was quite clear that this game was a must-win for the Suns to keep their play-in hopes alive. Heading into this matchup with the Clippers, they were five games under .500 and had lost eight of their last 10. The Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> are also hot on their heels. Though the news of Kyrie Irving\u2019s<\/a> torn ACL<\/a> is a devastating blow to the NBA, it offers the Suns an avenue into the top 10, as the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> look set to falter in the standings.<\/p>\n

But one win is not enough. This victory offers hope, but it means nothing unless they go on a huge run in the coming weeks, and it certainly will not be easy. The Denver Nuggets<\/a> come into town on Friday, before they finish the home stand with games against the Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> and Houston Rockets<\/a>. They then open a road trip with a California doubleheader at the Sacramento Kings<\/a> and red-hot LA Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is not much to take from this win, except it offers a glimpse into what the Suns could be. The Clippers have not been good in recent weeks \u2013 they are now 1-6<\/a> since the All-Star break. They were also without leading scorer Norman Powell<\/a> and have been strugglers on the road, now with a 13-19 record away from home. This was a game the Suns had to have regardless.<\/p>\n

Time for the Suns to Change the Narrative<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For now, the Suns of the first three quarters are more reflective of who they are than the last one. An incident<\/a> picked up on TNT cameras between Mike Budenholzer<\/a> and Durant threatened to overshadow the game and plunge the Suns into further disarray. TNT announcer Stan Van Gundy<\/a> voiced his displeasure and audible frustration at the state of the Suns\u2019 “pathetic defense”<\/a> several times throughout the game, imploring them to show greater effort. Once they did, they showed how good and together the team can be when they try.<\/p>\n

But, one quarter does not change everything. It is time for the Suns to change the narrative surrounding them, beginning on the defensive end. They have allowed at least 116 points in 14 of their last 15 games. A defensive rating of 116.3 on the season places them 27th<\/a> in the NBA. In the last 15 games, they rank last<\/a> at 121.6. Although a small sample size, this would be the worst defensive rating in NBA history by quite some distance, beating out the 2023\/24 Utah Jazz\u2019s<\/a> 120.4<\/a>. It starts with effort, as shown in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night. No turnovers leading to easy transition points, and no lazy defense allowing easy looks at the rim. It was an opposite story for much of the game, but the Suns found just enough in them to keep their season hopes alive.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns needed a win badly, and they got it in unlikely circumstances with a 23-point comeback at home to the LA Clippers on Tuesday night. Winning by two, it was a remarkable turn of events for a Suns team that was being booed by their own fans just minutes before their resurgence began. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5293,"featured_media":127035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,28],"tags":[1731,69,550],"class_list":["post-126998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-suns","tag-collin-gillespie","tag-kevin-durant","tag-mike-budenholzer"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126998"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127036,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126998\/revisions\/127036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}