PHOENIX — It had been established that the Phoenix Suns' hopeful skip toward a playoff seed included a season-closing schedule with more potential danger than Dorothy's commute back to Kansas.
Thunder and Clippers and Nuggets and Jazz and Spurs ... oh, my!
Without a good witch riding shotgun during this perilous journey, Wednesday's encounter with Oklahoma City pushed the Suns a bit off the road. The seemingly-requisite bricks were supplied by a Phoenix offense that managed to shoot a measly 41 percent from the field in this 109-97 loss to the mighty Thunder.
Still scuffling with four other teams looking for a way into the postseason, the Suns now check in as the Western Conference's ninth seed. The Utah Jazz ripped the reeling Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday to move past Phoenix and into eighth. The Denver Nuggets fell to the L.A. Clippers and now sit in seventh. The Dallas Mavericks knocked off Houston to claim sixth, with the Rockets dropping to a tiebreaker-invoked 10th.
The path certainly would seem a lot more hospitable had the Suns been able to take down OKC.
But honestly, a good witch probably lacked sufficient mojo to make things even a little tricky for Thunder guard James Harden, who put a career-high 40 points on Phoenix.
"That's the difference in the game," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said of Harden's effort. "You gotta give him credit ... he played a great game."
And with Grant Hill and his knee watching this one from the bench, Gentry didn't have a stopper to move over from guarding Kevin Durant to take a shot at Harden. All Harden accomplished was scoring 40 on just 17 shots from the field (he made 12) and 11 of 11 free throws. His line included a 5 of 8 performance from behind the arc, seven rebounds and four steals.
"It was good when you get on a roll like that," said Harden, a former Sun Devil who apparently majored in understatement at Arizona State. "My teammates played really well. We bounced back from a bad loss and a bad second half to get a win."
Harden was referring to Monday's beat down administered by the Clippers, who just so happen to be up next for the Suns.
Harden's teammates weren't all that stellar on Wednesday, but with James back in his adopted town, it didn't matter.
"It's always good," he said in reference to playing in close proximity to ASU. "It was special ... family, coaches, friends ... it was fun."
There's no place like the place that was home for a couple of years. But fun? Scoring 40 seems like a blast.
While Harden was the night's high-noon gunslinger, unfortunately, most of what doomed the Suns on this evening was self-inflicted.
"The most disturbing thing is we never came up with any of the loose balls," Gentry said. "They seemed to come up with all of 'em."
That's not exactly the type of grit-questioning indictment you'd expect to see attached to a team fighting to make the playoffs. That goes double for a Suns team that required a serious uprising to get this close.
Another disturbance was provided by a lack of productivity by the Suns' post players. Gentry didn't offer any names, but the overwhelming favorite as disappointment of the night was center Marcin Gortat.
"I just didn't think we had a presence offensively or defensively with our bigs," Gentry said. "We have got to have more of a presence from our bigs. That's finishing at the basket, rebounding the basketball, defending our goal and being a basket protector. We just didn't get very much out of that tonight."
Although Gortat did collect a game-high 12 rebounds, his inability to finish plays inside — he was 2 of 13 from the floor, 2 of 8 in the opening period — stalled an offense that had started quite well. Riding a trio of three-pointers in the opening quarter, the Suns were up 19-6 at the 6:20 mark.
Phoenix was still up 25-13 when Harden's 10 points escorted a 16-0 Thunder run that put them in front 29-25 going into the second quarter.
Harden was just getting warmed up, leaving the Suns to chill for a few hours until the Clippers roll in to the US Airways Center.
"We've got to just go for broke right now," Suns spokes-guard Steve Nash said. "We've got nothing to lose. I mean, we put ourselves in a position to get in the playoffs, and we have to go out there and enjoy it, attack and if the shots don't fall, it's one thing, but we've got to go for it ... We've got to go for broke and have fun with it and embrace this opportunity."
