Suns aim to avoid play-in

The Phoenix Suns rebuilt around the Big Three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal expecting to compete atop the Western Conference standings this regular season. Instead, first-year coach Frank Vogel’s team entered the final weeks of 2023-24 hoping to avoid the play-in before a playoff berth.

The weekend was a bad turn of results for the Suns’ attempt to land in the top six.

On top of the Suns’ loss Friday to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix has lost ground on already slim chances of avoiding the play-in.

The Suns are currently the eighth seed and come out of the weekend 2.0 games behind the No. 5 Dallas Mavericks and No. 6 New Orleans Pelicans. They don’t have the tiebreaker against Dallas but still have two games against New Orleans remaining — one on Monday night — in their eight total games to play this regular season.

Phoenix (43-31) has the same record as the Sacramento Kings. It has an April 12 tiebreaking fifth game of the year against Sacramento to clarify which team is a higher seed if they end with the same record.

The Suns and Kings have a 1.5-game lead on the Los Angeles Lakers in the No. 9 seed and are 3.0 games up on the No. 10 Golden State Warriors.

Here’s a look at the teams currently impacting the Western Conference playoff picture.

Where are Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference playoff standings?

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