Phoenix has to turn things around. Fast. The team is 3-7 in their last 10 and in the deep Western Conference that spells trouble — they have tumbled out of the playoffs and now are two games back of Memphis and Dallas in trying to get the last ticket to the postseason dance.
Jeff Hornacek is hoping Eric Bledsoe is the answer.
Bledsoe returned to the Suns lineup Wednesday after missing more than eight weeks and already Hornacek is putting him in the starting lineup.
Eric Bledsoe will return to the starting lineup for #SunsAtCeltics tonight. Gerald Green comes off the bench. P.J. Tucker starts again too.
— Paul Coro (@paulcoro) March 14, 2014
Green has played well in a starters role, but the Suns have to do something.
Phoenix’s defense has been its biggest problem, giving up 9 more points per 100 possessions in its last 10 games than its season average. They are still running and scoring, they just are not getting stops.
The Suns have lost three in a row and you can understand losses to good Warriors and Clippers teams (and they beat the Thunder four games ago). But Wednesday’s loss to Cleveland hurt — that is a must win game for the Suns at this point.
Their next five games are at Boston, at Toronto, at Brooklyn, Orlando and Detroit — those are the kind of games the Suns have to win if they are going to make the postseason. In general their schedule is pretty soft the rest of this month but once the calendar flips to April things get very tough.
Phoenix has to win now. Hornacek is counting on Bledsoe to make that happen.
