Suns down 3 vital players as quest for play-in intensifies vs Bulls

PHOENIX — With a win over the Chicago Bulls and a Dallas Mavericks loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, the Phoenix Suns can move to the No. 10 seed and Western Conference play-in with 13 games remaining. However, Phoenix will be without three vital rotation pieces against a reeling Bulls team that has won five of its last six games.

Bradley Beal was listed out for a week with a left hamstring strain ahead of Monday’s win against the Toronto Raptors. Grayson Allen will miss his fifth consecutive game with a left foot strain. And Suns backup center Mason Plumlee is listed out on Wednesday with a left quadricep strain. Plumlee is yet to miss a game all season.

Phoenix (32-37) holds the season tiebreaker against the Mavericks (32-36), meaning defeating Chicago and Dallas losing to the Pacers will move them into the play-in.

Dallas has been ravaged by injury since the earthquaking trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and Max Christie. Since then, Davis has gone down for an extended time, Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending ACL injury and countless other rotation players have gone down with injuries, paving way for the relatively healthy Suns to catch up to them in the standings.

Phoenix, however, has the NBA’s toughest remaining schedule in its final stretch of the season. After facing off against Chicago (29-39), one of it’s 12 remaining games is against a team under .500 (San Antonio). This grueling stretch includes two games against Milwaukee and matchups against juggernauts like Boston, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, Houston and Golden State.

Every game remaining on the schedule matters, but a win against the Bulls is of extreme importance as their next “easy” matchup won’t be for another 10 games.