We’ve seen this one before: down to the last few games of a season, and an Arizona team pretty much needs to win every single one to get into the playoffs. This time, it’s our beloved Phoenix Suns. In our info page, two out of three of us mention how much we love the Suns, and we even did an entire segment of how much we hated Vince Carter for being a cancer to the Suns. But that’s really the extent of how much we’ve spoken of our favorite team on this website.

Until now.

The Suns have had an up-and-down season since the lockout ended. They started out even, dropped down to 12-19 at one point, and then since the all-star break, they have been one of the best teams in the league. As they sit going into tonight’s game with Oklahoma City, they are tied for 8^th place in the west with Houston, 1 ½ games behind Dallas and 2 games behind Denver. Our Suns have the tie-breaker over Houston, so if the Suns win out, they are in. Let’s take a quick glance at the remaining games:

OK City – Tough game, no way around it. OKC is still in contention with the San Antonio Spurs for home court advantage in the playoffs. Durant is an MVP candidate, Westbrook is an All-NBA player, and Harden is a solid contributor. There’s a reason they’re expected to make the finals.

LA Clippers – Another tough game, depending on which Clippers team shows up. “LobCity” has won 12 out of 14, but has already lost twice to Phoenix this year. An entertaining team for sure, but they don’t have all the pieces there yet.

Denver – Huge game. HUGE GAME.Denver is 2 games ahead of Phoenix as of now, and a victory in this one at home would give the Suns a huge lift as far as their playoff chances. Not to mention they got us at home 2 weeks ago…it’s payback time.

@Utah – The only road game left, and a potential nail in the coffin. Utah is only ½ game back of the Suns as of today, and are by no means out of the playoff chase. A win here by the Suns would most likely knock Utah out of the playoffs.

San Antonio – This game is going to be very difficult or very easy, depending on how Spurs coach Gregg Popovich treats it. If his playoff position is sealed, he’ll most likely sit his “big three” of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili to prepare them for the playoffs. If it isn’t sealed, they won’t sit, and this gets much more difficult.

Depending on how Houston, Dallas, Utah and Denver fare the rest of the season, the Suns may have to go undefeated to get in. With 5 teams vying for 3 spots, things could get very interesting. I’m predicting that the Suns will pull out 5-1 for the rest of the season (losing to OKC) and snagging the 7^th seed. Every game remaining is critical if the Suns want to make the playoffs and have a magical run like Memphis did last year as an 8 seed.

Who knows, we may just get to have another classic Suns-Spurs matchup in the playoffs. I know I’d like to see it, and the last time we played, it ended pretty well. Let’s hope that 100 degree weather that’s bearing down on us also brings playoff fever back to Phoenix.