The Suns are finally healthy, and they've turned their season around -- just in time to face even bigger tests on the longest road trip of the season.

-Gerald Bourguet

Don't look now, but the Suns are starting to figure things out...just in time for the season's biggest road trip

The Phoenix Suns are on a tear, winning 11 of their last 14 games to completely turn this team's outlook around. Fans looking for the exact turning point may look to that double-digit win over the Miami Heat. Others may look to a feel-good win over the Los Angeles Lakers, and the majority will likely cite that 22-point fourth-quarter comeback win against the Sacramento Kings.

But if you ask coach Frank Vogel, the turning point actually came in a loss -- the Suns' 14-point drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas, in fact.

“I thought we did some good things on the Christmas Day game in a loss that I was encouraged about," Vogel explained after the Kings comeback. "And I felt like our team was going in the right direction with how we're sharing the basketball and how we're committing to the paint."

Luka Doncic dropping 50 points on the Suns' heads was the last time they dipped below .500. Since then, they've looked more like the contender everyone was expecting all along:

11-3 record (3rd-best in the NBA)
8th in point differential (+6.0)
4th in offensive rating (121.2)
12th in defensive rating (114.9)
7th in Net Rating (+6.3)
2nd in FG% (52.1%)
5th in 3P% (39.7%)

The recent returns look good, but the truth is, the Suns still have ample room for growth.

“I think we're only scratching the surface, quite frankly," Vogel said. "I think we're seeing flashes in certain games of how dynamic we can be, but still a long way to go with executing through the various types of double-teams that we're gonna see and the matchups that we face on a night-in, night-out basis. But they're growing each game, and I'm excited about what it's gonna look like come playoff time.”

It's probably not coincidental that as soon as the Suns' Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal got -- and stayed -- healthy, this team started stringing wins together. The Big 3 have now played 240 minutes together, and in that span, they're a +76 overall, posting a 125.4 offensive rating, 110.2 defensive rating and a +15.2 Net Rating.

It's the reason we've been preaching the value of more reps and time on the floor together, and midway through the season, the Big 3 is starting to build that chemistry.

“It's the definition of 'pick your poison,'" Booker said of the Suns' superstar trio. "All of us coming in with the aggressive mindset, it's gonna be tough to stop as you've seen late-game, especially with the spacing out there."

The spacing element is key, and it takes more than just the Big 3 to provide the optimal spacing Phoenix has enjoyed lately. This has been the first significant stretch of the season where the Suns have had their top-six players available, with Grayson Allen, Jusuf Nurkic and Eric Gordon joining the mix.

“I mean, our health is the No. 1 thing," Vogel said of the turnaround. "And we're continuing to evolve as a team and grow. All of our guys, not just the Big 3 -- the role players, guys that are coming off the bench, but also Grayson, Nurk, Eric, those guys finding their spots to be effective."

Thanks to the three-level scoring of the Big 3, Allen's league-best 3-point shooting and Nurk's connectivity, the Suns now boast one of the best starting lineups in basketball. It took 43 games to get there, but that five-man lineup of Booker, Beal, Allen, Durant and Nurkic is finally Phoenix's most-used lineup this season, logging only 164 minutes together.

The results have been promising though, since the Suns are +37 with the starters on the court. That's yielded a 127.5 offensive rating, a 114.7 defensive rating, and a +12.8 Net Rating, and even better, they're shooting a staggering 55.9 percent when they share the court, including 45.9 percent from 3-point range.

The Suns are finally seeing the blueprint with their core guys, which Vogel describes as "just multiple guys that can kill you" on the offensive end. They still need to consistently generate more 3s, and the fourth-quarter struggles have only marginally improved. But over the last two weeks alone, Beal has gone for 37 points, Booker's dropped 52, and Durant's exploded for 40-plus points in back-to-back games.

There's always going to be a "your turn, my turn" element to balancing three gifted scorers, but the Suns' stars are learning how to feed the hot hand

“All three of those guys are just trying to choose their spots, and all three of those guys are willing to let the other two shine," Vogel said. "I think those guys are showing a great deal of selflessness and striking a good balance with that.”

Perhaps the most selfless example is Durant's willingness to lead the charge on the defensive end. Over the last handful of games, he's taken on the toughest defensive assignments, ranging from Kawhi Leonard to LeBron James to Anfernee Simons to De'Aaron Fox to Domantas Sabonis to Brandon Ingram. Between that and his insane offensive numbers, it was no surprise to see him win Western Conference Player of the Week honors for the 32nd time in his career.

“He's the No. 1 reason our numbers have trended up, he's really stepped up on that side of the ball," Vogel said of Durant. "Obviously, you usually get those awards because of what you're doing offensively, but I think it's worth noting that we're winning these games of late as much because of what he's doing on the defensive side of the ball.”

Over this 11-3 stretch, the Suns have been the 12th-best defense in the league. There's still plenty of room for improvement there, but having a borderline top-10 defense hints at the strides this group is making while building more cohesion on that end.

Durant set the tone, but he believes that after a humbling, double-digit loss to the Clippers, everyone in the Suns locker room made a choice to be better on that end.

“I think we all made a conscious decision to just play harder, play more physical, get up into the ball a little bit more, just make life tougher for the opposing team," Durant said. "And since I'm old and I was guarding some of the best players around that time, it just seemed like it was all me, but I think as a collective, we made that decision.”

To be fair, the Suns aren't suddenly "fixed" either. Comeback wins against the Kings and Bulls were exhilarating, but Phoenix trailed by 20-plus in each of those games. The recent level of competition suggests progress, with wins over playoff-caliber teams like the Lakers, Magic, Heat, Kings, Pelicans, and Pacers, but their opponents over this 14-game stretch boast a combined record of 206-227, and only one or two of them sit more than a handful of games above .500.

As the current 6-seed in the West, the Suns are finally climbing the ladder. But they still have work to do in moving toward that championship ceiling they envision, and they have yet to face any true title contenders over this stretch. With a road game looming against the very Mavs team that dropped them to their season nadir on Christmas, Wednesday's start to this seven-game road trip could be a miniature, full-circle moment for the Suns.

“This is an important trip for us where we get to bond more as a team, but also showcase on the road in the tough environments what we're made of," Durant said. "I love where we are -- I mean, 25-18, man. It was just a week or so ago, it felt like we were one game, two games over .500. So we're trending in the right direction.”