"Friday, the Suns face the victim of their landmark victory of the season.

Considering it was a Portland Trail Blazers team that is only tied for eighth in the Western Conference says a lot about how the Suns have wasted the season's first 17 games.

If the Suns' offense resembled anything close to last season's mild decline, they would not be in this 6-11 predicament as they visit the Rose Garden .

Statistically, the Suns are a defensive team, ranking better defensively for scoring, field-goal shooting and 3-point shooting than they do offensively in those categories. They now give up the seventh-fewest amount of points in the paint in the NBA, but they also score the seventh-fewest points in the paint.

Only Boston and Orlando give up fewer fast-break points.

Despite the defensive progress, the Suns still have to be an offensive team with an improved defense to be a playoff team. But with the largest scoring drop-off (minus-12.3) from last season of any NBA team, the Suns are far closer to computing draft-lottery odds than ordering playoff bunting.

"Offense has been the one area that's been my biggest disappointment because I didn't expect it to struggle," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "We just have to keep trying to do what we do. We don't have a choice. To me, if we compete, we'll become a better shooting team at some point.""