The Phoenix Suns are currently on a six-game win streak, as they begin their longest road trip of the season tonight against the Dallas Mavericks.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Phoenix (25-18) has beaten good teams, teams with bad records and teams of all kinds of play styles during its win streak. The Suns have blown teams out, come back from large deficits and everything in between. In the end, a common denominator remains: a win.
Now, fans won’t get to see the scorching hot Suns at home next until Feb. 6 against the Milwaukee Bucks. Grayson Allen, who is in his sixth NBA season, said this road trip will be the longest of his career.
Here’s the Suns’ schedule for this seven-game road trip, which is part of the NBA’s second-toughest remaining strength of schedule, according to Tankathon:
- Jan. 24 @ Dallas Mavericks (24-19)
- Jan. 26 @ Indiana Pacers (24-20)
- Jan. 28 @ Orlando Magic (23-21)
- Jan. 29 @ Miami Heat (24-19)
- Jan. 31 @ Brooklyn Nets (17-26)
- Feb. 2 @ Atlanta Hawks (18-25)
- Feb. 4 @ Washington Wizards (7-35)
Coach Frank Vogel had to reflect a long ways back to remember a road trip this long: when he was on the Boston Celtics staff from 1996-2004.
“Shoot, it makes me go back to when I was with the Celtics,” Vogel said. “We’d always come West for a seven- or eight-game trip. But I don’t know if I’ve done it since then. It’s been a long time since I’ve been with Celtics too, by the way. I’m getting old.”
He did remember a slightly longer “road trip” he had when he helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the NBA Finals in the bubble in 2020.
“I had a three-and-a-half month road trip. That was a long road trip,” Vogel said laughing.
Vogel knew it was important to get a win on Monday against the Bulls to ride momentum into this trip.
“I don’t know if there’s a right time for trips like that,” Vogel said pregame Monday. “But I mean, we’re on a five-game win streak right now. We gotta get this game before we head out, and then we got to take care of business on the road.”
The Suns ended up coming back from down 23 led by a season-high 43 points and a game-winner from Kevin Durant to defeat the Chicago Bulls 115-113.
“That was important for us to finish this off before we go on this long road trip,” Durant said postgame. “This is an important trip for us where we get to bond more as a team, but also showcase on the road in the tough environments what we made of. Our last couple of road games in New Orleans (and Portland), we played two solid games on the road, so we’ll try to build off of that and keep that momentum.”
First up, the Suns have a chance to get revenge on the Mavericks (24-19) for their Christmas Day loss. However, these two teams look completely different now than they did just a month ago.
Mavs – Suns preview👇
What a difference a month makes. Suns were in shambles after Luka's 50 point torture on Christmas.
Now Suns are healthy and one of the hottest teams: 11-3, 3rd in net rating at (+10.9), 2nd on offense since Christmas.
Mavs are 6-7 with -0.4 net rating.
— Iztok Franko (@iztok_franko) January 24, 2024
Phoenix has jumped all the way up to sixth place in the Western Conference after floating around 8-10 before the win streak.
In large part, this is due to staying healthy and finally being able to run what they want to. We will see if this can continue over the next two-and-a-half weeks.
“I love where we are,” Durant said. “I mean, 25-18, man. It was just a week or so ago, it felt like we were one game, two games over .500. We’re trending in the right direction.”
Phoenix Suns Surge in ESPN Power Rankings with Six-Game Winning Streak
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
