Are Phoenix Suns Doomed to Miss NBA Playoffs Again?

If history has a tendency to repeat itself, then the Phoenix Suns are in for a rude awakening.

Seeking to snap a four-year postseason drought, Phoenix has been reduced to jousting with mercurial Western Conference foes for the second season in a row with danger hovering on the horizon. 

And it would be one thing if the Suns were just trying to ward off hard-charging competition from the Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans. However, late-game woes have magnified just how minuscule the team's margin for error has become with more than half of the season in the books. 

Following Sunday night's heartbreaking 85-83 loss to the Sacramento Kings courtesy of a DeMarcus Cousins prayer, Phoenix has been burned four times at the final buzzer. Three of those losses have come courtesy of diabolical and unpredictable bounces off the iron as time expired.

Those defeats have been so cringe-inducing that Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek has been reduced to hoping for more conventional losses in the weeks ahead, according to Suns.com's Matt Petersen:

It's hard to blame him, either, because the Suns are losing games at a dramatic volume in ways few others have before them, according to ESPN Stats & Info:

Ultimately, though, those agonizing blows are indicative of more significant problems that have materialized in the desert.   

This season, Phoenix has played 31 games under "clutch" circumstances, meaning a given contest has been within five points with under five minutes remaining in regulation. That's the second-most among Western Conference teams. 

But despite leading the league in fourth-quarter scoring (27.3 points), the Suns have totaled a win percentage of just .484 in close games. Additionally, their 16 losses under the clutch banner are the second-most among Western Conference teams and tops among current playoff qualifiers.

Whether you want to blame it on plain misfortune or poor execution, losses of such an excruciating nature push Phoenix ever closer toward a fate lined with disappointment.    

To make matters worse, some of the Suns' symbiotic shortcomings have started to shine through with tension mounting. 

Although Phoenix possesses the league's top-scoring bench at 43 points per game, according to HoopsStats.com, a redistribution of touches in the team's backcourt has thrown things off kilter.    

According to The Arizona Republic's Paul Coro, point guard Goran Dragic admitted to experiencing frustration regarding his inability to work into a rhythm of late: 

"

Yeah, a little bit but it's not only me. We're not getting that freedom that we used to have on offense. The good thing is that we've still got one more game (before the All-Star break). Hopefully, we're going to win that and then we get one week off, hopefully to clear our heads a little bit.

Everything is about the rhythm. If you don't get the ball so many times in that spot that you like, it's really tough to get going. That's the main thing for me now.

"

Over his last 10 games, Dragic is averaging just 12.5 points and 4.2 assists while shooting 42.4 percent from the field. 

And as Dragic goes, so go the Suns. 

During his ill-timed slide, Phoenix has failed to produce a point per possession, dropping their offensive rating since Jan. 1 to 103.4. That's nearly a four-point decrease from the fifth-ranked offensive rating the Suns produced prior to the new year. 

The common thread here revolves around Isaiah Thomas chewing up possessions that previously belonged to Dragic. While Thomas' play off the pine has been commendable—his 15.3 point-per-game average ranks No. 2 among sixth men behind Jamal Crawford—the fluidity that dominated Phoenix's offense a season ago hasn't been pervasive. 

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

"One can see Thomas' teammates deflate when he shifts into over-dribbling mode, thereby bringing the Suns' revolving pick-and-roll offense to a halt," Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney wrote in December. "This is not optimal."

Last season, Dragic was used on a career-high 24.5 percent of Phoenix's plays. This season, that figure has dropped nearly three points to 21.6. Thomas, meanwhile, has been used on 26 percent of the Suns' possessions, which ranks No. 2 overall among Suns players who have logged at least 100 minutes this season, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

According to Mahoney, that schematic shift can be viewed through the lens of Hornacek's late-game personnel pairings:

"

To the extent that there is some broader fault of Thomas in play, it may be his mere presence. Last year's Suns were Dragic's team by default. First he was the veteran in place to ease Bledsoe's transition to high-usage play. Later he made the team his own in Bledsoe's absence, in the process putting together a season worthy of All-NBA honor. This season's Suns have taken a palpable shift toward the democratic – not only in the balance between Dragic and Bledsoe, but in which guards Suns coach Jeff Hornacek has chosen to rely on in pressure situations. Of the three guards, Dragic plays the least in fourth quarters. 

"

In some sense, it's a good problem to have. The Suns are replete with scorers who can create in a pinch—a luxury most teams can't afford. But this recent regression is scary, and Phoenix needs to find answers in a hurry with New Orleans and Oklahoma City ready to surge at a moment's notice. 

On the bright side, each club scrapping to get its ticket punched at the bottom of the postseason pecking order is inherently flawed. The Suns, Pelicans and Thunder can all attest to that. 

Phoenix doesn't need to be perfect, though. Title contention is merely a pipe dream at this point, with a postseason berth representing validation of the gradual progress this team was supposed to make after crushing developmental checkpoints in style last year.  

And if the law of averages has any say, perhaps Phoenix will be the recipient of a few fortunate bounces and a modest synergistic upswing. At this point, that may be the only way to stave off Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and their insatiable appetite for victory.    

All statistics current as of Feb. 9 and courtesy of NBA.com unless noted otherwise.