Improvement for Suns must start at home
Having a home court advantage is one of the most important things for teams hoping to make the playoffs in the NBA, though that advantage has been virtually non-existent for the Phoenix Suns this season. The team is just 13-10 at the US Airways Center after winning 32 games their last year, a mark good enough to rank sixth in the NBA.
Suns coach Alvin Gentry realizes that if his team hopes to catch the Portland Trail Blazers for the eighth and final playoff spot they’ll have to play better at home.
“I think we’re playing pretty good basketball,” he told the media Tuesday after practice. “We’re getting better. We have to do a much better job of protecting home court. We’ve not played well at home. That’s kind of been our Achilles’ heel.”
Gentry said teams sometimes afford to scuffle a bit on the road because, he said, the good teams make it up on their home floor.
“Most of the good teams, even if you struggle on the road a little bit, usually take care of business at home. We’ve been a really really good home team here the last six years. We have to try to find a way to run off a lot of home wins.”
Steve Nash echoed his head coach’s sentiments, expounding upon the importance as the team prepares for Wednesday’s tilt with the Milwaukee Bucks.
“We need to get as many wins as we can,” Nash said. “Especially at home. We’ve got to come out and have a good performance. We’re a couple games under .500 and we’ve got a home game. This is a game we should win if we play well and compete.”
In order to get those wins at home, Nash feels the team needs an attitude adjustment moving forward.
“Our attitude has to be the rest of the year that we have to earn it,” he said. “We have to prove that we can be a good team. Right now we’ve won a couple of games, we’ve won seven of our last 10 I think, but we still have a lot of work to do to prove that’s the type of team we are.”
Nash and the Suns will have a chance to prove what kind of team they are at the US Airways Center Wednesday against the Bucks, with tipoff at 7:00 p.m.
ArizonaSports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this report
