Photos by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images The Suns are on a downward slide to end the season, and they play their final home game tonight against the resurgent Silver and Black Welcome to the Game Thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, b ut for all you newbies we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much. There’s an old bit that they do on Inside the NBA called Gone Fishin’, where they show teams that have just been eliminated from the playoffs in fishing gear all dressed up for vacation. The bit has worn a bit thin over the years, but no team deserves that treatment more than the 2024-2025 Phoenix Suns, who were hanging onto a playoff spot in late March but have been on a downward slide since March 26, when they suffered a 132-102 blowout loss to the Celtics — and it only got worse when Durant was injured on March 30 in a game against the Rockets. They’re on an 8-game losing streak, losing them by an average of about 22 points. It’s been a biggest meltdown since Chernobyl, and I don’t see how Coach Budenholzer is going to be able to keep his job after this debacle, but stranger things have happened. The Spurs are coming off their biggest feel-good win of the season, defeating the Warriors 114-111 on Harrison Barnes’ buzzer-beater triple. While both of these teams are out of the playoffs, they’re headed in different directions, and if I were a Suns fan, I wouldn’t be happy with the outlook. There’s no real significance for tonight’s game in the standings, except that the Spurs could lock up being alone in the 8th lottery spot tonight with a loss. If the Spurs win both of their remaining games, they could end up tied with the Trail Blazers and/or the Suns, which would kick off a complicated series of procedures where lottery combinations are divided among the tied teams with remainders assigned by a random draw which would occur before the actual draft lottery. The Spurs could avoid all of that with a loss tonight, but the dispirited Suns might not put up the kind of effort to make that plausible if the regular starters play. I would expect Coach Bud to play a lineup of backups and two-way players, and they might bring the effort that has been missing during the late-season collapse, and make the game interesting. For the Spurs, Devin, Keldon and Sochan are out, so expect to see some run from Harrison Ingram and David Duke Jr. Steph Castle is the guy to watch tonight, and he should be on watch to punish the rim with some serious dunks tonight. Harrison Barnes has been the most consistent performer for the late-season Spurs, and he should have another nice night. Chris Paul will make his 81st start of the season tonight, and on Sunday, he will have started all 82 games at the age of 39, which is another amazing accomplishment in his storied career. The season’s almost over, let’s watch this one together. Game Prediction: Devin Booker will wear a bucket hat with fishing lures and cargo shorts on the bench tonight. GO SPURS GOOOO!!! San Antonio Spurs at Phoenix SunsApril 11, 2025 | 9:00 PM CT Streaming: NBA League PassTV: KENS5 Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments, but it is not against site policy to exchange email addresses, for instance. ...read more read less