Sliding Suns Refuse to Panic with Play-In Spot All But Locked

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns are almost at the end of the journey.

And what a journey it's been.

All season long, the Suns have been able to surpass expectations amid a massive string of injuries, which has ultimately resulted in a play-in tournament spot.

How confident is Phoenix in taking the next step?

"Very confident," veteran forward Royce O'Neale told reporters at practice this week (h/t Duane Rankin).

"Getting guys healthy. Get everybody back, especially full strength. Being able to have guys out, being able to compete with teams, especially to the last possession, 1-point, 2-point, 3-point games. We're right there. Stick with it and we'll be able to break over the hump."

The Suns are on a skid of losing their last six-of-seven games, all of which have come with eight points or less differential.

Phoenix is still down starters in Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams, though the likes of O'Neale and Grayson Allen have been cleared from the injury report entering this weekend.

The Suns are all but set to compete in the play-in after failing to jump into the West's top six after the recent string of losses.

"It's hard to take good things from losses, but most of these games, we've put ourselves in position to win the game," O'Neale said.

"JO (Jordan Ott) talks about our process all the time. Our process throughout the games have been really good. How we're playing, how we're executing, battling for the possession game. All that stuff puts us in a place to win the games. There's some execution stuff in the fourth quarter that we can clean up to win some of those, but in terms of putting ourselves in a position to win most of those games against good teams. There are some positives you can take, but obviously towards the end of the season, you'd like to get those wins. It's hard to take moral victories."

Phoenix plays host to the Utah Jazz tonight before embarking on a four-game road trip next week. Six of their final nine games will be on the road.

Unfortunately, the Suns haven't quite been able to see their lineup fully healthy through the course of the regular season, and after virtually being eliminated from a playoff spot, one of Phoenix's top goals has to simply be getting healthy ahead of their play-in tournament festivities.

We'll see if they're able to do that.