The Suns beat the Rockets last night in Houston and it moved them one loss behind both the Rockets and the Nuggets for the 7th and 8th playoff spots. In other words, the Suns are a hungry team.

We will need to be hungry too. Only one game off the Lakers’ debacle, I’d like to think we’d still have something to prove. We’ll see.

1.  Song: Yachts by A Man Called Adam

Samba. Bossa. Chill. Latin. I think all those words might fit this song. I just like the easy groove and it makes me feel good. “Yachts“, it’s good for a Saturday evening game.

2. Key Match Up: The Benches

The Suns bench has been playing really well. Last night, however, the Suns’ starters logged pretty heavy minutes so the Suns bench will be even more important to them. Michael Redd, Sebastian Telfair, and rookie Markieff Morris have all been contributing. Add to them a recently healthy Grant Hill and space cadet Robin Lopez and you have a pretty good second unit.

Obviously, our bench is the strength of our team and I expect ours to be better, but it probably won’t be by much.

3. Keeping An Eye On: Our Secondary Wing Play

The play of our wings who aren’t named Manu has been a real roller coaster lately. Kawhi, Danny, and Stephen have all been up and down. In my opinion, none of them have been consistent from game to game. You just have no idea who is going to give you good minutes, points, rebounds, defense, or just completely disappear.

4. Bold Prediction: Spurs by 12

I’m guessing we will get up by 8-10 pretty early in the second quarter only to give away most of it by half time. I think it will be a close battle through the third and early fourth as our bench won’t be able to pull away from them. Then, I think we open up the game to 8 points in the middle four minutes of the fourth quarter — from the 8:00 mark to the 4:00 mark. We’ll hit a couple free throws late for the final margin.