{"id":696045,"date":"2026-04-03T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696045\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:33:16","slug":"suns-about-to-secure-play-in-seed-in-nba-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696045\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns about to secure play-in seed in NBA standings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/nba\/phoenix-suns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Phoenix Suns<\/a> have lost eight of their last 11 games. The tumble \u2014 even as Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams each returned from injury \u2014 has about settled their postseason fate.<\/p>\n<p>In the seventh seed at present, Phoenix finds itself 4.5 games behind the Minnesota Timberwolves, with only 11 combined games left between the two teams.<\/p>\n<p>The magic number is two: Two combined Suns losses or T-Wolves wins means Phoenix will not avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament by leaping Minnesota to win the No. 6 seed. The probabilities Phoenix can overtake Minnesota: 0.2%, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/friv\/playoff_prob.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to Basketball-Reference.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Suns are 2.5 games ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers and 3.0 up on the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, the Suns have a probability of greater than 94% that they will stick in the top play-in seed at No. 7, giving them hosting duties for the opening day of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>There is a 5% chance the Suns fall to the No. 8 seed with the Clippers or Blazers catching them: Los Angeles has 4.5% odds and Portland just 0.7%. There is a 0.2% chance both teams catch Phoenix and relegate them to the No. 9 seed, which would require the Suns to win two play-in tournament games to reach a playoff series.<\/p>\n<p>If the Suns enter the play-in tournament as the No. 7 seed as projected at the end of the regular season, they could remain in the seventh seed for the playoffs with a win in the 7-8 play-in game. With a loss in that opening play-in game, Phoenix could enter the playoffs as the eighth seed by winning a second play-in game against the winner of the 9-10 seed game.<\/p>\n<p>NBA standings: The Suns and the play-in picture<\/p>\n<p>6. Minnesota Timberwolves (46-30) \u2014 14.5 games behind 1st<br \/>7. Phoenix Suns (42-35) \u2014 19.0 games behind 1st<br \/>8. Portland Trail Blazers (40-38) \u2014 21.5 games behind 1st<br \/>9. Los Angeles Clippers (39-38) \u2014 22.0 games behind 1st<br \/>10. Golden State Warriors (36-41) \u2014 25.0 games behind 1st<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix Suns remaining schedule<\/p>\n<p>at Chicago (29-47) \u2013 Sunday, April 5<\/p>\n<p>vs. Houston (47-29) \u2013 Tuesday, April 7<\/p>\n<p>vs. Dallas (24-52) \u2013 Wednesday, April 8<\/p>\n<p>at Los Angeles Lakers (50-27) \u2013 Friday, April 10<\/p>\n<p>at Oklahoma City (61-16) \u2013 Sunday, April 12<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kzimmermanaz\" data-show-count=\"false\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Follow @kzimmermanaz<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/arizona-sports-newsletter-signup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"mobile-signup\"\/>\t&#13;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"desktop-signup\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Suns have lost eight of their last 11 games. The tumble \u2014 even as Dillon Brooks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-696045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-phoenix","11":"tag-phoenix-suns","12":"tag-phoenixsuns","13":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116341507512008394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}