There is no doubt that the end goal for this Phoenix Suns team is to win a first ever NBA Championship, and at this point anything else is just a distraction. About the only other trophy that fans would have any interest in is Devin Booker winning the league MVP award, but that isn’t happening this season.
The Emirates NBA Cup then is the remaining piece of silverware that this organization is still in with a chance of winning, although the merits of doing so remain to be seen. A trip to Las Vegas would be nice, although if anything it led to last year’s maiden winners of the trophy – the Los Angeles Lakers – running out of steam before the playoffs started.
The Suns are 2-1 in group play heading into Tuesday night’s game with the San Antonio Spurs, and have a point differential of +19. This is important, as it could come down to point difference when trying to decide the final two wildcard spots to advance alongside the six group winners.
There is unfortunately only one way this team can qualify as group winners to ensure safe passage to the knockout phase of the tournament, and it is not very likely. Not only do the Suns have to beat the Spurs, they also need the Oklahoma City Thunder to lose to the Utah Jazz. Anything can happen in the league, but the Jazz are 4-16 on the season, whereas the Thunder are 15-5.
Moving onto the Suns getting that wildcard spot – and although more has to go right for that to happen – it seems more likely at this moment. Again they need to win, and then hope that the Portland Trail Blazers (away to the L.A. Clippers) and Dallas Mavericks (home to the Memphis Grizzlies) both lose.
The more likely of the two to go the Suns’ way is clearly the Clippers – who have started to figure things out in recent weeks – beating up on the 8-13 Trail Blazers. The Mavericks at home are a tough proposition, although the Grizzlies are 14-7 and boast a six game winning streak. They’ll have no fear going to Dallas and trying to pull out a win.
Given that this is a wildcard spot, all four of those teams aren’t even in the same group as the Suns, which is actually a good thing in this instance. We’re not going to go into the specifics here – but although the Grizzlies and Mavericks can both take the wildcard spot for themselves – the path to doing so depends on many more things outside of their control going right.
Should the Suns make it through then they’ll have one more game to face – away from home – before the remaining four teams head to Vegas. This cup has provided some intrigue for the early part of the regular season, although many fans are still to be convinced by its merits. Will winning the inaugural version of this tournament be used when arguing LeBron James was better than Michael Jordan?
There’s still one very good reason for the Suns to take it seriously though, and that is that every game except the final counts towards their regular season record. Better to just beat the Spurs then – and if that helps give them safe passage to the knockout stage – continuing winning as many games as possible in pursuit of homecourt advantage in the playoffs.
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