The players on the Phoenix Suns roster admitted after last Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks that their playoff hopes had died. Now team president Lon Babby is admitting it as well.

“We’re just not good enough at the end of the day,” Babby told Sports 620 KTAR’s Doug and Wolf. “A lot of nights we seem to be just good enough to lose. If that makes any sense. We’ll play hard, the games are close and then in the 4th quarter we can’t score or get a stop.”

It does make sense. The Suns have struggled all year closing out games and, as Babby mentions, the only time they were able to put it together was for a brief stretch in February. They’ve seemed to lack a ‘killer instinct’ all year. Like clockwork, at the end of games they’ve lost composure and turned over the ball or missed big shots, costing them many winnable games.

Babby understands that at different times throughout the season they’ve played well but the front office can’t latch onto those brief glimpses of hope.

“The challenge for us here in the front office is that we don’t delude ourselves and believe in fool’s gold,” he said. “We have six or seven core guys playing extremely well.”

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