The Suns can move back into an eighth-place tie with Utah if they win at home against the Clippers tonight, when Grant Hill is expected to return after missing two games because of a sore right knee. With a week remaining in the season, Houston also could be in that tie with a win tonight at New Orleans, but the Suns hold the tiebreaker in either a two-way or three-way tie. Get through to the playoffs, and the Suns could wind up facing Oklahoma City (45-17), which is a half-game behind West leader San Antonio.

“We’ve just got to go for broke now,” Suns point guard Steve Nash said.

The Thunder guy who lit up the Suns for a second consecutive meeting is the type of scoring, playmaking young wing the Suns would like to grab in free agency, but they would have to wait another year. Former Arizona State star James Harden, the favorite to win the Sixth Man Award, set a career high of 30 points when he last played the Suns and made his only Valley visit of the season memorable Wednesday night with a new career high of 40 points. Only Kobe Bryant (48) and DeMarcus Cousins (41) have scored more on the Suns this season, but Harden did it off the bench to turn around an awful Thunder start.

via Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic