LOS ANGELES — Phoenix is in a fight to make the playoffs in the West – it entered Monday night tied with Memphis for the last and final playoff spot in the West — and they could use this:
Eric Bledsoe is on track to play Wednesday, coach Jeff Hornacek said Monday night before his team took on the Clippers. Bledsoe will not play Monday night.
Bledsoe has been out since surgery Jan 10 to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.
“We’ll have to see how many minutes he can play without getting really tired,” Hornacek said. “But I think with him coming back at this point we have a chance.”
Bledsoe is averaging 18 points and 5.8 assists a night for the Suns and formed with Goran Dragic one of the best and more aggressive backcourts in the NBA.
In his absence Gerald Green has stepped up and played very well of late, leaving Hornacek with a good problem to have with distributing minutes. He said the one goal is to reduce Goran Dragic’s minutes and load.
“That’s always a tough thing when a guy comes back,” Hornacek said. “If you’re out a week or two it’s pretty easy to put them right back where they were before, but he’s been out over eight weeks now. Gerald (Green) has come in and played well, and that’s the initial plan, is to bring (Bledsoe) off the bench and get him acclimated to the guys and playing again, and we’ll go from there. If we feel the best thing for our team is to have him back in the starting lineup we’ll do it at that point.”