In a word, Yes, or at least get ready to…

The Suns are 24-18, currently in 6^th place in the Western Conference and only ½ game over Houston, OKC and Utah who are sharing places 7 to 9 with the Memphis Grizzlies only one game back. In other words, Phoenix is one loss away from being out of the Playoffs picture for the first time this season. Not to mention the fact that the 9^th and 10^th place team in the Conference, Memphis and New Orleans, are playing very good basketball at the moment and quickly making up for the gap in the standings.

The Suns have lost 4 in a row (against Memphis, Charlotte, Atlanta and Indiana…all good teams but hardly the NBA’s best) and on three of those have allowed over 120 points.

Phoenix was 7-9 in December, is 3-6 in January with 7 games left in the month, before facing a very tough February with 7 road games including visits to Denver, San Antonio, Dallas.

In the last 9 games (those played in 2010) Phoenix has allowed on average 115 points a game, it’s amazing they actually won three of those and lost one on a buzzer-beater by the Hawks.  

Now we all knew, deep down that the Suns were not the team that started the season 14-3 but neither this terrible sub .500 team.

The truth is probably the Suns are facing a tough stretch, it happens during the course of a long NBA season, but it means they’ll have to fight to the end for a Playoff spot.

The alarming trend in turnovers has been discussed on this same site over the last few days as is the Suns’ inability to protect their lead in games.

The scary thing is that the Suns seem to be losing a bit of confidence in what they’re doing as Grant Hill stated following the horrible loss in Charlotte:  ”We’ve got to figure out who we are, who we want to be.”

Gentry is starting to feel this same pressure and he tried to shake things a bit last night putting Barbosa and Lopez (AP Photo/ Mark Weber) in the starting five in place of Richardson and Frye. J-Rich, the most disappointing of the Suns so far, is averaging 13 points since December while shooting at just 41 percent from the field.  

Coach Gentry has turned the alarm on: “We just have to play with a little more energy and a little more desperation. We are fighting for our lives and we have to play that way”

I’m not sure if it’s already time to panic but I’m sure the answer will come from the next three home games. Phoenix hosts New Jersey, Chicago and Golden State this week. Should the Suns fail to win at least two of them, three actually, I think we should all start worrying for real.

Yours truly, Steve Fan