Suns Look to Hit Reset Button After Tough Road Trip
The Phoenix Suns were a strong 7-2 before hitting the road for a four-game stretch away from the Valley. They were behind only the then-undefeated Milwaukee Bucks to be the best team in the league.
Yet here we sit eight days later: The Suns lost three-of-four games on their road trip without starters in Chris Paul or Cam Johnson. Four games in seven days didn't help, either.
After the first loss to Philadelphia, head coach Monty Williams said the team simply lacked energy.
"I think we could’ve put anybody out there tonight. We just didn’t have our normal juice. It was a bit of a toilet flusher to me ... I just didn’t think we had anything close to what we would call average as far as energy, ball movement and 50-50 pursuit," Williams said after the loss.
After bouncing back on Wednesday vs. Minnesota, the Suns lost their last two games to Orlando and Miami before returning home.
Now, Phoenix finds themselves as the No. 4 seed in the west with a 8-5 record.
Not terrible. Not awful. But even in the absence of two starters, more is expected out of a team that previously won 64 games with essentially the same core last year.
In such a long season, teams are bound to go through a rough patch. Such is life for a Suns team on their first 3+ game road trip without their full arsenal of weapons.
Phoenix now returns to the Footprint Center to host the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, which will begin a nine-game stretch that features seven home games in that time.
During that stretch, only one team (Utah, who they play twice) is above a record of .500.
Two teams (New York and Sacramento) are exactly at .500 while every other team (Golden State, Los Angeles Lakers, Detroit, Chicago and Houston) are below.
Three of those aforementioned squads (Lakers, Pistons and Rockets) all have three wins or less on the year.
While Johnson will still be out for the foreseeable future, the Suns hope to regain Paul soon. He is questionable heading into Wednesday vs. Golden State.
After battling a bit of adversity, the Suns now have the perfect opportunity to hit the reset button and return to the dominant, winning ways before the month of December.
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