Phoenix Suns and that home-court advantage

On Feb. 28, after a blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns forward Markieff Morris called out the fans for what he believed was a lack of energy and enthusiasm on their part.

“I don’t think we have a home court advantage,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like a home court advantage at all. Some games are going to be bad. You can’t win every game, you know, that comes along with sports.

“Nobody wins every game but we need the support to know we need as a team to know our fans are going to be behind us and I don’t feel like, this year, that they’re behind us.”

While his words may have upset some on Planet Orange, it’s true that Valley fans have a reputation for being more relaxed than some. Give them something to cheer about, though, and they’ll be on their feet making as much noise as anybody.

And that may be where the Suns themselves are the problem.

This season, the team has not consistently performed at a high level at US Airways Center. In fact, they’ve been nothing like they were from 2004-10, when the Suns were in their :07 Second or Less mode.

Let’s take a look at the 2014-15 Suns when compared to last year’s team, which excited fans all season long, as well as the squads that ran roughshod over much of the league not too long ago.

The Phoenix Suns at home (including playoffs)

	This Season	Last Season	From 2004-2010 (six seasons)
Winning Percentage	.548 (17-14)	.634 (26-15)	.737 (35-14, 38-14, 37-10, 31-12, 28-13, 38-11)
Average points per game	105.7	108.15	110.67 (111.24, 109.46, 109.04, 109.33, 112.68, 112.24)
Average points per game against	103.8	102.73	103.16 (103.04, 100.58, 101.22, 104.88, 106.34, 102.92)
Against teams that are .500 or better	.571 (12-9)	.611 (11-7)	.679 (19-12, 22-9, 21-7, 15-9, 13-9, 22-7)
Against teams that are under .500	.500 (5-5)	.652 (15-8)	.819 (16-2, 16-5, 16-3, 16-3, 15-4, 16-4)
Average Attendance	90.7 percent (16,714)	86.2 percent (15,871)	98.4 percent (17,825; 17,939; 18,422; 18,422; 18,422; 17,774)
First of a back-to-back	.500 (1-1)	.000 (0-2)	.885 (4-0, 6-0, 3-2, 1-0, 4-0, 5-1)
Second of a back-to-back	.400 (2-3)	.600 (3-2)	.697 (6-2, 4-1, 5-2, 4-1, 1-2, 3-2)
Number of times a Suns player scored 30+ points	5	10	32, 13, 8, 18, 7, 11
Number of times an opponent scored 30+ points	7	11	20, 18, 19, 14, 14, 13
Highest amount of points in a game by the Suns	125	129	136, 149, 139, 137, 140, 152
Highest amount of points in a game by the opponent	127	122	128, 152, 144, 132, 128, 128
Lowest amount of points in a game by the Suns	74	87	79, 85, 83, 81, 82, 88
Lowest amount of points in a game by the opponent	89	84	82, 75, 80, 77, 81, 80
Most points scored by a player in one game	40 (James Harden)	41 (Gerald Green)	50 (Amar’e Stoudemire), 51 (Kobe Bryant), 54 (Gilbert Arenas), 42 (Chris Bosh and Chris Paul), 49 (Bryant), 44 (Stoudemire)

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