Tracking 40, Week 20: Comebacks, chaos, and cautious optimism for the Phoenix Suns in Week 20

The Phoenix Suns show signs of life but still searching for a true spark.

A spark. That’s all it takes to ignite a flame. If you’ve ever been camping, fumbling with flint while your family watches, you know the feeling. Knees to the earth, praying for that one ember to catch. For the Phoenix Suns in Week 20, the sparks began to fly. The fire isn’t roaring just yet, but something is shifting.

Down big against two of the West’s elite, the Suns clawed back. They won one, lost one, but showed the kind of fight that has too often been missing. Was this just desperation? The late-season scramble of a team feeling the walls closing in? Or was it something more? A moment of self-realization, a shift in identity, the turning point we’ve been waiting for?

With only weeks left and the competition relentless, we may look back at this stretch as the flicker that started something real. I won’t call it optimism. Let’s just say I’m watching. Sautiously. A 2-1 record against the Clippers, Nuggets, and Mavericks? That’s one of the best weeks this team has had in a while. So enjoy it. Because if they want this spark to become a wildfire, they’ll need to feed the flames.

Week 20 Record: 2-1

vs. Los Angeles Clippers, W, 119-117

• Suns 3PAr: 42.5%
• Suns 3PT%: 41.2%

Sometimes, basketball reminds you why you keep showing up. Down 19 in the fourth, the Suns looked cooked. Then…BOOM! A comeback for the ages. Phoenix stormed back to stun the Clippers 119-117, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot, the kind that actually makes you fist-pump in your living room.

Collin Gillespie (!) came off the bench and made a real impact, and for a team scraping for life, this felt different. A lost season? Maybe. But nights like this? They pull you back in.

@ Denver Nuggets, L, 149-141 OT

• Suns 3PAr: 41.8%
• Suns 3PT%: 42.1%

Another night, another comeback, another gut punch. The Suns clawed back from 21 down against Denver, with Kevin Durant’s ice-cold three forcing OT. Grit? Check. Fight? Absolutely. A win? Nope.

This team keeps proving it can erase deficits. But that’s not a strategy, it’s a survival tactic. They can’t sustain balance; when one part clicks, another collapses. The Suns are built to chase, not control, and that’s a brutal reality.

@ Dallas Mavericks, W, 125-116

• Suns 3PAr: 33.3%
• Suns 3PT%: 35.7%

The Suns beat a Mavericks team held together with duct tape and good intentions, and somehow, it still felt unsatisfying. Devin Booker dropped 24, Kevin Durant flirted with a triple-double, and Bradley Beal was hyper-efficient, but this wasn’t a statement. It was a sigh of relief.

Phoenix didn’t dominate; they simply lasted longer than a team missing half its roster. Sloppy defense, careless turnovers, and a general lack of urgency still loomed. A win is a win, but if this is how they plan to climb the standings, good luck.

Week 20: 39.2% 3PAr, 40.0 3PT%

Another week, another brush with the 40/40 mark. For the sake of tradition — 20 weeks strong now — I’ll drop the graph below, a nod to posterity. But as this data tracking has evolved, so has my perspective. The numbers? They don’t move me. They’re a piece of the puzzle, a factor in victory, but never the defining reason. Basketball is messier than clean statistical thresholds. The Suns have flirted with the magic numbers, yet wins and losses still hinge on something deeper. Execution, urgency, and, sometimes, just a little fire.

Week 21 Preview

Week 21, baby. Blackjack week. Hit me!

The Suns kick things off tonight in Memphis, taking on a Grizzlies squad also dragging itself off a back-to-back. Even without Ja Morant for most of the season, they still light up the scoreboard. How? Because they run like hell. First in the NBA in pace, they’ll push the tempo, which means Phoenix better have some gas left in the fourth. Spoiler: they probably won’t.

Wednesday brings another shot at the Rockets, who bullied the Suns before the All-Star break. Houston doesn’t win with speed; they win with defense. Third in defensive rating on the year but slipping to ninth since the break. So maybe there’s a crack in the armor? Or maybe they’re still a nightmare to score on. We’ll see.

Friday, Phoenix returns home for a single-game stand against the Kings, a team ahead of them in the standings. A massive game…if chasing the 10-seed and the Play-In is your thing.

And then, Sunday, the week wraps in L.A. against the Lakers. The NBA’s golden child. The team that somehow, someway, always lands on its feet. Their blockbuster trade for Luka Doncic has the stench of cigar smoke and backroom deals. I’ll say it: the Lakers have been spoon-fed success since the dawn of time. Weak sauce.

How did the community fare last week? Just 13% predicted the Suns would go 2-1 in Week 20. What about this week? How will we do? How will you?

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