The Phoenix Suns came out of the NBA All-Star break with all of their key players active, facing a Western Conference team that trails them in the standings and without their star player.
It didn’t matter. The Suns (26-29 as of Friday morning) lost their fourth straight game Thursday night, 120-109, to the San Antonio Spurs (24-29), who were without 7-foot star Victor Wembanyama.
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The same struggles — porous defense, lack of offensive rebounds and turnovers — again were a big part of the Phoenix storyline. The Suns are in 11th place in the Western Conference. If the regular season ended today, they’d miss the playoffs, as the No. 7 through 10 teams make the play-in to see which will be among the eight playoff teams.
Suns news: Social media backlash to Ryan Dunn’s minimal playing time in loss to Spurs
Phoenix continues its road trip Saturday at the Chicago Bulls (22-34 10th in the East). The Suns are running out of games to show they are able to turn it around. There has been plenty of speculation about what will happen in the offseason and plenty of dissatisfaction among fans over what — or who — is to blame for the team’s poor showing this season.
With that in mind, you can vote in our poll below. Where should most of the blame lie for the Suns’ disappointing season so far?
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Poll can also be opened in a new window.
Read more of our recent coverage:
‘Unhappy basketball team’: Bill Simmons assesses Phoenix Suns’ body language in loss
(This story has been updated to add or change a gallery.)
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Vote: Who’s to blame for the Suns’ season woes?