The week closes with the Phoenix Suns walking away 2–1, which on paper sounds perfectly respectable. A winning week, a positive record, another step forward. Yet it still feels like something was left on the table.
If you zoom out and look at the past two weeks together, Phoenix is 5–2. A strong stretch of basketball. Still, part of your brain keeps drifting back to the same thought. This could have been 7–0. The losses to Chicago and Toronto linger. Those are the ones that stick in your mind when
you glance at the Western Conference standings and see how tightly packed everything remains. Every game carries weight in that traffic jam.
But this is not the “what if” business. The record is the record. The standings are the standings. Phoenix sits at 39–28, eleven games over .500, which in most years would feel comfortable. In this conference, it still places you in the middle of the knife fight. That is life in the Western Conference. In the East, this exact same record would have Phoenix sitting in the fifth seed. Instead, they continue to battle for position and attempt to climb out of the Play-In conversation.
Oh well. No sense living in the land of what if.
It was an interesting week for Phoenix while they were out on the road, because it came with a noticeable scoring surge from both Devin Booker and Jalen Green. And let me say this up front, this is a good thing.
Jalen Green looks like himself again. The confidence is back. The rhythm is back. You can see the upside talent that made him such an intriguing addition in the first place. Coming off the hamstring injury, there were some rough nights, the type that make you stare at the box score and wonder when the burst will return. Over time, it has. He now sits at 17.4 points per game on 41/31/76 shooting splits, which is a healthy step forward from where things began.
The more interesting element now is the dynamic between him and Devin Booker.
Both have started to figure out how to operate alongside one another, and the scoring reflects it. When those two get rolling, the offense can look explosive. This week, through the lens of offensive rating, was the best the team has posted all season. The Suns had an offensive rating of 125.3 in Week 21.
At the same time, there is a delicate balance that every team in the league wrestles with. When two players dominate the scoring load, the rest of the group can drift to the edges of the offense. The ball finds fewer hands. The rhythm of the other players can cool. That balancing act shows up every night in the NBA.
Still, I will take this version over the alternative every time. I would rather see confidence and scoring aggression than watch a talented player wander through possessions searching for his rhythm. Green has found his groove again. Now the next challenge is consistency. And balance.
Green averaged 23 shot attempts per game this past week. His career average sits around 16.5, which tells you he probably lived seven shots above his natural range. It is a strange thing to analyze because those shots were falling, and when they fall, the offense hums. Yet those attempts have to come from somewhere. A handful of them can flow to other players in the system, most notably Collin Gillespie, who has been one of the pleasant surprises of the season when the offense runs through him in spurts.
So Week 21 accomplished something important. Jalen Green looks confident again. He is playing with energy, attacking the rim, and knocking down shots. His efficiencies are climbing, and that is good news for Phoenix. Now comes the next step. Harness that confidence. Spread it across the roster. Let the ball breathe a little more.
Because a good offense has multiple cooks working the stove, not two guys trying to run the entire kitchen.
Week 21 Record: 2-1
@ Milwaukee Bucks, W, 129-114
- Possession Differential: -2.0
- Turnover Differential: -5
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: 0
The Suns opened their road trip in Milwaukee like a team that remembered how to score again, dropping 129 on the Bucks and winning their third straight. Giannis did his usual freight train routine, whistles and all, but Phoenix leaned into its identity when it mattered. Defense.
The Suns held Milwaukee to 17 points in the fourth while three players topped 20 for the second straight game. A couple of weeks ago, this team struggled to reach 80. Now they’re stacking wins and rhythm. Meanwhile, in NBA chaos, Bam Adebayo dropped 83. Basketball is weird.
@ Indiana Pacers, W, 123-108
- Possession Differential: +0.7
- Turnover Differential: -4
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: 0
On a night in Indiana against the league’s worst team, the Suns finally saw the vision come to life. Devin Booker dropped 43, Jalen “Guac” Green poured in 36, and the backcourt combo served up 79 points of offensive spice. Green’s fourth straight 24+ performance showed the efficiency Phoenix has been waiting for, while Booker orchestrated the chaos like the veteran conductor he is.
@ Toronto Raptors, L, 122-115
- Possession Differential: +1.4
- Turnover Differential: +2
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: -2
The Suns spent most of Friday night looking like a team with things under control, cruising with a lead until the Raptors decided the paint belonged to them. Toronto shot 14-of-22 in the fourth, dropped 36 points, and bullied Phoenix inside while the Suns stuck with a small lineup that suddenly looked like a bad idea at the worst possible time. Devin Booker and company had the game in hand until the final 2:34. Then it slipped away.
Inside the Possession Game
- Weekly Possession Differential: +0.4
- Weekly Turnover Differential: -8
- Offensive Rebounding Differential: -2
- Year-to-Date Over/Under .500: +11
Time for your weekly graph!
It is funny when you stare at the graph long enough. Lines go up. Lines go down. Turnovers spike one week. Offensive rebounds dip the next. Possession differential swings around like it is riding a roller coaster through the desert. There are plenty of things to analyze when you track a team for 21 straight weeks.
Yet there is really one line that matters. That pink line.
For the most part, the Suns have done a solid job winning the possession battle throughout the season. You can see the moments when injuries hit, and the roster turned into a rotating cast of new combinations. During those stretches, the possession numbers dipped. The team lost that battle more often. The graph shows it clearly.
Still, that pink line keeps creeping upward. Slowly. Quietly. One step at a time.
And that is the one that counts, because that line represents cumulative games over .500. When the week closed, the Suns sat at +11, which happens to be their highest mark of the season at the end of any week. So yes, we can dig into turnover differential. We can debate offensive rebound rates and possession swings until our eyes cross. But when the dust settles, the only number that really matters is that pink line continuing to climb.
Week 22 Preview
Are you ready for a busy week? Because the schedule is about to hit full speed for the Phoenix Suns. After three games away from home, they will still manage to squeeze in two games back in Phoenix before the week is over.
It starts tonight at TD Garden against the Boston Celtics. You know the Celtics. The same team that had no problem handling the Suns the last time these two met. That was a Boston team missing both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and both of those guys are healthy and back in the lineup now. This version of the Celtics is a different challenge. Although, to be fair, the Suns were without Devin Booker. Tomato, potato.
The schedule does not slow down either.
Tomorrow night, the Suns head to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves. It is the first of two back-to-backs this week. The game carries some weight in the standings, although the head-to-head element is already settled. Phoenix has beaten Minnesota twice this season. The road trip wraps up Thursday in San Antonio against the Spurs. Phoenix leads the season series 2-1, although the most recent meeting was not exactly pleasant. The Spurs handed the Suns a 27-point loss on February 19.
Then the Suns return home.
On Saturday, they face the Milwaukee Bucks, the same team Phoenix defeated earlier this week. The homestand continues Sunday against the Toronto Raptors, a team the Suns also saw recently when they met on Friday the 13th.
Add it all together, and you get five games in seven nights. The only breathing room comes on Wednesday and Friday.
Grueling is a fair way to describe it. The schedule is compressing as the regular season winds down and the playoff picture begins to take shape. Where Phoenix lands in that picture will be influenced heavily by what happens over the next seven days. With less than a month left in the season, every result starts to carry a little more weight.
