When you zoom out on Week 16 for the Suns, it reads like a week of missed opportunity. The West does not wait for anyone. It chews teams up nightly and dares you to keep pace. You have to handle your own business and hope a few breaks fall your way.

Phoenix started the week as the seventh seed and ended it the same way, but the math is shifting. Houston and the Lakers now sit two games ahead at 32-19. That gap did not have to be there. The door was open. The Suns never fully walked through it.

Coming off that long road trip where they split six games and lost both Devin Booker and Jalen Green along the way, the schedule finally softened. Nine of ten at home. Prime real estate. This team is supposed to feast there. Instead, seven games into that stretch, they are 3-4. Even the lone road game this week turned into an early mess, down 19 before waking up and clawing back to win. Credit for the fight, sure. But it keeps feeling harder than it needs to be.

That is the rhythm of an NBA season. You steal some you should not. You drop some you cannot afford. Eventually, it evens out. The bad from this week is loud. A 14-point fourth-quarter lead evaporated against Golden State. The good matters too. Booker is back. Green is back. Health changes everything.

The season keeps breathing. Up and down. In and out. Same as it ever was. Look at it, learn from it, and carry on.

@ Portland Trail Blazers, W, 130-125

Possession Differential: -5.7Turnover Differential: -6Offensive Rebounding Differential: 0

Tuesday night in Portland started like a trap game and played like one, at least early.

The Suns sleepwalked through a brutal opening quarter and watched the league’s worst three-point shooting team go 13-of-30 from deep. Down 19, things looked cooked. Then Phoenix woke up. They clawed back before halftime, detonated a 34-22 third quarter, and flipped the night on effort and poise.

Ugly start, strong spine, familiar finish.

vs. Golden State Warriors, L, 101-97

Possession Differential: +0.8Turnover Differential: -3Offensive Rebounding Differential: -4

It’s three days later, and I’m still pissed about this game.

vs. Philadelphia 76ers, L, 109-103

Possession Differential: +1.7Turnover Differential: -5Offensive Rebounding Differential: +1

The Suns got their cavalry back Saturday night. Devin Booker returned. Jalen Green returned. The vibes were there. The shooting was not. Phoenix opened 1-of-13 from deep, finished 11-of-46 overall, and spent the night pump-faking themselves into worse decisions. The offense moved. The looks were clean. The threes refused to fall.

Inside the Possession Game

Weekly Possession Differential: -2.8Weekly Turnover Differential: -14Offensive Rebounding Differential: -3Year-to-Date Over/Under .500: +9

Who doesn’t love trying to figure out this graph, eh?

There’s not a lot to unpack in the possession battle from this past week. On the surface, the Suns did some things well. They won the turnover differential. They were not crushed on the glass the way the noise might suggest. And yet, they still lost the possession game overall.

When I dig into the numbers, nothing really screams at me. Even with that ugly shooting night against Philadelphia baked in, the Suns finished the week at 36.2% from beyond the arc, which sits 14th in the league. That is fine. They were sixth in the NBA with 10.3 steals per game, which tracks with the effort and activity we have come to expect.

The problem shows up in the assists. 23.3 per game. That ranks 25th. And that tells you everything you need to know. The ball did not move with any real pop. Too much standing. Too much dribbling. Too many possessions ending in isolation that never quite got where they needed to go. And on the occasions when the ball did move, the shots did not fall.

Week 16 ended up being strange like that. A week that easily could have been 2-1. Instead, it turned into something messier. Sometimes it is not one stat that betrays you. Sometimes it is the way all of them quietly point in the same direction.

Only two games on the slate this week, both at home. And because the NBA never misses a chance to trip over its own scheduling genius, they come as a back-to-back. This could have been clean. Saturday. Monday. Wednesday. Instead, the league jams Dallas and Oklahoma City together and calls it a plan. So that is what it is, and that is when it is happening.

Dallas is fascinating in a chaotic way. Cooper Flagg has arrived and changed the temperature of the franchise. Everything Nico Harrison built has been stripped down to the studs, outside of keeping Max Christie around. Anthony Davis is gone. Flagg is already a problem. And yet, the wins have not followed. The talent is there. The results are not.

Then comes Oklahoma City. A Thunder team playing without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and wobbling a bit because of it. This feels like an opportunity. A real one. The Suns can make it two wins in four games against this group this season, with one more meeting waiting at the very end. Back to back or not, the opening is there. The question is whether Phoenix takes it.

63% of voters believed Week 16 would be a 2-1 week for Phoenix. The 3% who chose 1-2 were correct. How does it shake out in this short week that has only two games…but they’re back-to-back?