The Pulse: Fans say Phoenix Suns won’t extend winning streak to 10 or more
Dec 27, 2014, 10:27 PM | Updated: Dec 28, 2014, 2:20 am
A six-game losing streak is all but a distant memory as the Phoenix Suns have turned around and won their last five games in a row.
The winning streak was on our mind when we asked in our previous Sanderson Ford Poll Question of the Day, which can be found in the right-hand column of our home page, if the Suns can extend their current streak to double-digits.
When the poll was first posted, Phoenix was on a four-game run, but we let readers vote through early Saturday, a day after the Suns extended the streak to five, winning on the road 115-106 over the Sacramento Kings.
The fifth win in a row wasn’t enough to convince our readers that the streak will win 10 or more, as the most-popular answer remained “Not a chance,” with 167 voters out of 425 (39 percent) picking that option.
A close second in the poll was “They’ll get close, but not to double-digits,” which earned 36 percent of all votes (152 overall).
That left just a quarter of voters (106 overall) optimistic that the Suns will stretch this streak to 10 games or longer.
As of Saturday morning, Phoenix has the eighth-best record in the Western Conference at 17-14. Their next game (Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers) is winnable, and the following meeting (next Tuesday in New Orleans) arguably is as well. The Suns then have to turn around and play in Oklahoma City the following night, a place where they lost by 24 earlier this month. Perhaps our readers saw this matchup as the impediment to a 10-game streak.
If Phoenix were to win those three games, a win at home over the lowly Philadelphia 76ers would give the Suns nine victories in a row, and their home meeting with a talented Toronto Raptors club on Sunday, Jan. 4, could turn into the 10th. Other than next Wednesday’s contest in Oklahoma City, the next daunting matchup on the Suns’ schedule is Friday, Jan. 9, in San Antonio. Could Phoenix take the floor at the AT&T Center carrying a 12-game winning streak?