Suns Now Enter Must-Win Territory

It's Friday, and the Phoenix Suns play basketball later today.

For plenty of evenings, that's typically been a fun night for Suns fans. Winning basketball has been a standard around town the last few years, and the recent arrival of Kevin Durant at the trade deadline only amplified expectations.

Yet here we are: The Suns are down 2-0 to the Denver Nuggets - without starting point guard Chris Paul thanks to a groin injury - and will need a historical effort to turn the tide of the series. Phoenix is 0-13 in a seven-game series when they're down 2-0, and the Nuggets looked the stronger side in both matchups.

Teams that go up 3-0 are 149-0 in securing a series victory while teams with a 3-1 lead are 264-13.

Simply put, the Suns can't afford to lose either game on their home court over the weekend. Especially against a strong Nuggets team.

When asked if the Suns are expected to come out with a different energy now that they'll be playing back in Phoenix, Nikola Jokic (jokingly, with a smirk) said, "No my friend, I expect they surrender and they give us the win."

The Suns understand the task at hand:

“I feel like we're capable of getting out of this hole,” Cameron Payne said. He's likely to earn more time on the court in Paul's absence, for however long that might be. “We’re back home. Our job was to go steal one. That didn't happen. Let's handle what we got now. Let’s try to go 2-0 here and deal with what we got to do back in the road."

Game 3 begins tonight at 7:00 PM PST.