How Suns' Loss to Nuggets Severely Impacts Playoff Picture

The Phoenix Suns find themselves in an even tougher spot to move out of the top play-in seed and into the top six in the Western Conference after last night's 125-123 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Phoenix, who is 1-6 in its last seven games, moved to four games back of the sixth seed with the loss, as it has a 40-33 record with only nine games left to go.

A win over Denver would have cut this down to three games and also brought the Nuggets (45-28) back down into a tie for the sixth seed.

Even before the loss to the Nuggets, Suns star Devin Booker admitted the Suns put themselves in "a tough position to make it to the six (seed)," but there was still a fighting chance for Phoenix if it would have knocked off the Nuggets.

The Suns have two very winnable games coming up against the Utah Jazz (21-51) next on Saturday then the Memphis Grizzlies (24-47) on Monday, so if they were able to build a three-game win streak, who knows how that would have impacted the standings.

Instead, it now seems more likely that the Los Angeles Clippers (36-36), who are 3.5 games back of the Suns, catch them rather than the Suns moving up from the seventh seed.

Suns Need to Find Consistency in Final Stretch

At this point, the Suns need to find a way to get back to the consistency that helped them become one of the biggest surprises in the NBA this season.

Phoenix has blown fourth quarter leads in five of its last six losses, but is competing with some of the top teams in the NBA despite the losing stretch.

“We’re just trying to get over the hump," Booker said after the loss to Denver. "The majority of our losses in this stretch have been like that. Close game in the fourth quarter. We just have to keep growing, keep building and I think we’re competing hard. We just haven’t gotten over that hump.”

The Suns' identity of being a gritty team who hangs their hat on defense, has been prevalent during some stretches of this recent rough patch, but they have just simply not been able to close out games.

Could this change when the likes of Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams return from injury?

We will see, but time is ticking for the Suns, and they will look to build some momentum in these last two-and-a-half weeks to gear up for what will likely be a play-in matchup against the Clippers,