The Phoenix Suns have some challenges throughout their 2022-23 regular season schedule, headlined by a difficult period over Christmas and the New Year.
However, in some aspects, the Suns do have an advantage over their competition. While an 82-game season is always a grueling campaign full of ups-and-downs, Phoenix may find it easier than others from a physical, mental and emotional standpoint.
When analyzing rest days between games on the NBA schedule, the Phoenix Suns have a favorable fixture in comparison to the rest of the league.
NBAstuffer have gathered data from the schedule and released an informative table on the rest days analysis for all 30 NBA teams. Starting with the amount of back-to-backs, Phoenix has the lowest in the league at 12, while 20 of the teams have at least 13 or more.
Six of the 12 are back-to-backs on the road, equal-third lowest in the league behind the New York Knicks (four) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (five). In comparison, Pacific rivals the Los Angeles Clippers (11), the Golden State Warriors (ten), and the Los Angeles Lakers (ten), all have significantly more back-to-backs on the road.
Phoenix Suns, Mikal Bridges. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The Suns play three games in four days nine times when the third game isn’t a back-to-back. That sounds confusing, but just think of it as a four-day schedule of game, game, rest, game. Anyway, only the Dallas Mavericks (eight times), Knicks (eight times) and the Denver Nuggets (seven times) play less in that scenario.
Phoenix also don’t have a situation where they’ll play five games in a one-week span. For comparison, 14 teams will do it once while eight teams will do it twice. Furthermore, the Suns have the equal-third most ‘fresh’ games. That’s when a team is considered rested, while the other team is considered tired (no rest).
The Suns join Detroit as the only team to have six ‘tired’ games. This is where you are the team that has had no rest, while the opposing team has had rest. Phoenix has the fourth most ‘even’ games, considering where both teams are either ‘fresh’ or ‘tired’.
All in all, as hard as it may be to comprehend this far out from a season, this is a massive win for a team coming off a league-leading 64-18 record in 2021-22.