Stat Reveals Suns' Ugly Fourth-Quarter Struggles

The Phoenix Suns have struggled in the fourth quarter - here's one stat to prove it.

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns have plenty of problems to solve as the end of the regular season nears, though their fourth quarter woes are arguably the toughest roadblock.

For all the star power Phoenix possesses, seeing a team with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal (under a title-winning coach in Frank Vogel) struggle down the stretch of the games is baffling at best.

This merit is carried certainly by the eye-test when watching Suns games, as 70+ games of regular season play have seen Phoenix fans rarely feel comfortable watching their team battle when clutch time appears.

Metrics also support this claim.

More from Bleacher Report's Tyler Conway:

"With just 10 games remaining in the 2023-24 season, the Suns have the worst fourth-quarter net rating in the NBA—and it's not even particularly close. Phoenix is outscored by opponents by 14.1 points per 100 possessions, more than double the next-worst team (Miami Heat at -7.0) and nearly seven times worse than the lowly Detroit Pistons (-2.5).

"In total, the Suns have been outscored by 217 points in the fourth quarter. By contrast, they've outscored their opponents by 427 points in the other three quarters combined."

The latest issue came when Phoenix fumbled a second half lead to a vastly inferior San Antonio Spurs without their best player in Victor Wembanyama, a loss Vogel deemed unacceptable.

“That's just unacceptable to lose that game for our guys. We all said the right things, we all did the right preparation to come in, but we didn't play with the necessary focus and disposition throughout, I would say the first half, and you give a team like that life. That's how the NBA works. They get going, they get charged up and they start believing they're going to have a chance to win it. Credit those guys with Victor [Wembanyama] out. Those guys played really well," he said.

Vogel's players echoed similar sentiments.

“We just knew they were going to play harder, knew they were going to play with more focus. They made big shots down the stretch," Kevin Durant said following the game.

"They got momentum at the end of the third, took the one-point lead that kind of grew from there. This game is about momentum. It was in their favor at the end of the third. The last three minutes of the third, they got the lead back, got a little eight-point lead to start the fourth, too. So, they had momentum going into the fourth quarter.”

Phoenix's sledding gets no easier with dates against the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder coming in the next two games.

Entering Wednesday, Phoenix's 42-30 record is good enough for the West's No. 8 seed.