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Tonight’s Phoenix Suns game against the Utah Jazz represents the 15th time this season the team has played in back-to-back games.  With the Jazz only 1/2 game ahead of Phoenix for home court advantage in the playoffs, the history of the back-to-backs this season could indicate how well the team will do.  (more…)

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A look back at some trends for the Suns over the past week (February 23 through March 1):

1. The Suns outscored their opponents 546 to 507.
2. The win against the Nuggets capped a stretch of five games in seven days.  They won four of those games and their one loss was by 3 points.
3. Phoenix scored the least number of cumulative points in the 4th quarter over the past week.  They averaged 23.8 points in the 4th quarter as opposed to at least 27.2 in each of the other three quarters.  They scored 17 points twice in that stretch.
4. Amar’e Stoudemire has average 26.4 points over the past week.  Steve Nash averaged 11.25 assists over 4 games – he didn’t play in the first game against the Thunder.
5. The Suns bench averaged 26 points.  The bench of the opponents averaged 33.6 points.  This number is skewed by the Spurs whose bench scored 55 points against the Suns.  But the three players on the bench who scored were Richard Jefferson, Manu Ginobili and DeJuan Blair.  The Spurs starting five only scored 58.

One more number:

1. Lori Ann was wondering how the Suns did when the Suns scored at least 25 points in each quarter and how the team did when at least 25 points were scored in the first quarter.  So I ran some numbers.  The Suns are a perfect 11-0 when they score 25+ points in each quarter.  When they score at least 25 points in the 1st quarter, the Suns are 34-15 – a 69% winning percentage.  So if you’re looking to practically guarantee the Suns a win, root for them to score at least 25 points a quarter.

Have a numbers question yourself?  E-mail me at blog@suns.com and I’ll try to track down the answer.

You’ve seen Joe Gilmartin’s writing on Suns.com – now read what someone wrote about him!  Fanster.com‘s Ben York caught up with Joe a few days ago and asked him about the Suns’ past and present.  Read Ben’s entire interview and when you’re finished there, be sure to check out the rest of Fanster.com’s Suns offerings.

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The Suns don’t have control over their own playoff destiny at this point in the season.  But they did do their part on Sunday night by scoring the most points by an NBA team this season.  And more importantly by beating the Warriors, 154-130.

Jason Richardson and Matt Barnes decided to beat up on their old team by scoring 51 combined points – over 33 percent of the teams total points.  Shaquille O’Neal and Leandro Barbosa add another 47 points to the team’s total.  In fact, every player who stepped on the court for the Suns scored except for Stromile Swift.

With such a high scoring game, one would think that Steve Nash would have the team high in assists.  But that honor went to Matt Barnes, who had a quarter of the team’s total assists.  Nash, however, wasn’t far behind with nine of his own dishes. (more…)

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For those fans (myself included) who wondered whether the Phoenix Suns would be able to keep up their winning ways with their new coach, Wednesday night’s game was a good test.  Phoenix wouldn’t be playing in front of their home crowd, the newness of the coach had worn off a bit and the players were tired from the game the night before.

And for the first three quarters, it looked as if the Clippers might have a chance.  They scored 19 more points than they did the night before.  But they let the Suns score 2 more points than they did in the previous game.  The final score was 142-119, advantage Suns. (more…)