Ranking Phoenix Suns' Top 10 remaining regular season opponents

The NBA season's second half for the Phoenix Suns will be a tough gamut entering the playoffs. According to Tankathon, Phoenix's schedule after the All-Star break is the most difficult among all 30 teams.

Led by their Big 3 in Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Durant, the Suns entered the break a season-best 11 games over the .500 mark. In a tight Western Conference race, the Suns (33-24) slipped from fifth to eighth after their back-to-back losses to the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets on Thursday and Friday.

Here's a breakdown ranking the Suns' toughest opponents and when they'll meet as Phoenix looks to finish among the West's top four postseason seeds for home court advantage.

1. Boston Celtics (44-12)

Mar. 9 (home), Mar. 14 (away): Phoenix plays six different playoff contenders in March. The Celtics are atop that list with the league's best record, led by MVP candidate Jayson Tatum, their $304 million-dollar man Jaylen Brown, and stellar big Kristaps Porzingis. The Celtics have been the league's top team all season. If the Suns are a title-worthy team, they need to prove they can defeat the Celtics' top-ranked offense and vaunted defense, whether at home or in Boston, where the Celtics have lost just three games.

2. Denver Nuggets (38-19)

Mar. 5, 27 (both away): Denver entered the break on a three-game skid. The Nuggets are fourth in the West standings, yet still the team to beat to get to the finals. The Suns couldn't do it against the Nuggets last year in the West semifinals, and the Suns lost to them on Dec. 1 at home without Booker and Beal. Phoenix lacked a third high-scoring wing threat in Beal, as well as high caliber playoff-battle tested sixth and seventh men Eric Gordon and Royce O'Neale last season against Denver. It will be interesting to see how that shapes up for the Suns if they're full strength against the Nikola Jokic-led defending world champions.

3. Los Angeles Clippers (37-18)

Apr. 9 (home), Apr. 10 (away): The Clippers bullied the Suns by an average 18-point margin in their previous matchups on January 3rd and 8th. Multiple Suns players have said they anticipate facing the Clippers in the postseason. The Clippers are third in the West, and that could be a potential semifinal matchup. Playing back-to-back games against this Pacific Division rival in the season's final week is a great test for Phoenix to possibly split their season series, or at least not get humbly swept.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder (39-17)

Mar. 3 (home), Mar. 29 (away): Suns coach Frank Vogel said entering their first game against the Thunder on Nov. 12, which they lost at home, that Oklahoma City's one of the West's best. That seemed premature to say three weeks into the season, but the Thunder manifested that as the conference's No. 2 team mostly since then. The Thunder's top scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in the MVP conversation. Rookie of the Year candidate and center Chet Holmgren is playing like a future All-Star. Jalen Williams has ascended to one of the league's top two-way players in his second season. Josh Giddey is a solid point guard in his third year. This OKC team is for real.

5. Minnesota Timberwolves (39-17)

Apr. 5 (home), Apr. 14 (away): Minnesota has been the West's top team for the past three months. Led by superstar Anthony Edwards, twin towers Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, as well as the West All-Star coach Chris Finch, the Timberwolves have been the league's top defense all season. The next Suns-Timberwolves games in Phoenix and season closer in Minnesota could be a Western Conference Finals preview if the Suns can play like they did when they routed the Timberwolves at home on Nov. 15.

6. Cleveland Cavaliers (36-19)

Mar. 11 (away): Cleveland is No. 2 in the East, led by its backcourt in perennial All-Star Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. The Cavaliers are the league's hottest team, which boasted a nine-game win streak this month, eight straight in January, and won 18 of 22 games after New Year's Day. Phoenix plays them to start a four-game road trip in mid-March.

7. New Orleans Pelicans (34-23)

Apr. 1 (away), Apr. 7 (home): The Pelicans will be dangerous if Zion Williamson finally stays healthy through the rest of the season and plays in his first playoff appearance with their two other top players Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum. Phoenix's loss to Dallas pushed New Orleans up from sixth to fifth in the West, and the New Orleans bench has the second-best net rating compared to Phoenix's 20th.

8. Milwaukee Bucks (36-21)

Mar. 17 (away): The Bucks have struggled under their new coach Doc Rivers at 4-7 since he took over for recently terminated first-year coach Adrian Griffin. However, the Bucks are still third in the East and Milwaukee is a tough place to play (23-7 at home). Phoenix closes that mid-March four-game road trip there.

9. Sacramento Kings (32-23)

Apr. 12 (away): The Suns won the last two meetings versus division rival Sacramento to split their four total games. Phoenix ends its season on a three-game road trip, and Sacramento in the middle of the Clippers and Minnesota. Most of the Suns-Kings games have been hard-fought, and the season's penultimate game shouldn't be any different.

10. L.A. Lakers (31-27)

Feb. 25 (home): If Phoenix ends up in a play-in tournament scenario at the Nos. 7-10 seeds, and the Lakers continue barely hovering over .500, the Lakers could possibly be Phoenix's initial postseason matchup. Not a good way to start the postseason facing LeBron James and Anthony Davis as the two heads of that snake in single elimination. Any opportunity to beat the rival Lakers is a good thing to keep them out of the way. The Suns won the last game over the Lakers on Jan. 11, but the Lakers outdueled them in the previous three.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ranking Phoenix Suns' top 10 remaining opponents after All-Star break