2024 NBA Playoffs - West 1st Round: #3 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. #6 Phoenix Suns (MIN SWEEPS 4-0)

[Bob8]

It looks to me that everyone agrees that Suns are bad, I wonder how that makes Wolves great?

i think it's more like how bad the wolves are making the suns look.

They might make Suns look bad, but Suns are totally different team than Denver. What works in this series might not work in other.

[sunsbg]

It looks to me that everyone agrees that Suns are bad, I wonder how that makes Wolves great?

i think it's more like how bad the wolves are making the suns look.

They might make Suns look bad, but Suns are totally different team than Denver. What works in this series might not work in other.

Suns made Wolves look bad in regular season, now it's the opposite. Maybe Wolves are well coached team and adjusted ? That said, most likely WCF is Mavs vs Nuggets.

[garrick]

The post all star game swallowing of the whistle is super great for the Wolves and absolutely devastating for the Suns when you got KD and Booker who aren't good with physical defense.

Suns also aren't just playing small ball, the starting PF is 6'4 Royce O'Neal and we are often running a 3 guard lineup which just gets exposed for being too small to rebound or play any kind of physical defense. I think this explains the 2nd half meltdowns that have been so common for this Suns team, by the time the 3rd or 4th quarter rolls around the team is gassed and not having a deep bench also compounds the issue which sort of requires the big 3 to play close to 40 minutes.

[nbafan38]

It looks to me that everyone agrees that Suns are bad, I wonder how that makes Wolves great?

i think it's more like how bad the wolves are making the suns look.

They might make Suns look bad, but Suns are totally different team than Denver. What works in this series might not work in other.

The wolves are gritty and good but yea comparing the dysfunctional suns with a well oiled machine like the nuggets is night and day.

[Crunch 99]

Teams are ranked by their defense in the playoffs in the link below. There are only two games for Celtics in the image; they will move up after they finish their third game today. Click on link for updated rankings.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced?SeasonType=Playoffs&dir=A&sort=DEF_RATING

[LaLover11]

Edwards better get ready for LeBron James

Hope Suns can take Minnesota to 7 games

[AbeVigodaLive]

Polling results changed significantly since the start of this series.

[Rubio9Guy]

Oh no. Scott Foster tonight.

[Shaka_Zulu]

Oh no. Scott Foster tonight.

Congrats Suns, you escape the sweep

[shrink]

Suns vs Timberwolves is a perfect example of regular season success against a team doesn't meaning anything.

Yes. To Finch’s credit, he instructed his coaches and players that they were going to go “Vanilla” in Game 82, and not show the Suns anything they’d been working on for the playoffs. Now, we all know that the playoffs are more important than a regular season game, but Game 82 had a lot of personal value for Finch.

If Finch shows his stuff and wins Game 82, the Wolves tie for the best record in the conference. He was in the running for the Coach of the Year award, but finishing behind Mark Daigneault probably insures that he doesn’t win it. But playoff success is so much more important to the players and this franchise in particular, and he didn’t show his cards. He wasn’t trying to lose Game 82, but he knew that he needed to step on the gas when the playoffs started.

[LSWF]

Oh no. Scott Foster tonight.

Congrats Suns, you escape the sweep

NBA putting short term profits over long term integrity of the game. No way this POS lets the Wolves sweep the Suns.

[spanishninja]

Oh no. Scott Foster tonight.

Congrats Suns, you escape the sweep

don't be so sure. in 2022 KD got swept anyway by the Celts even with Series Extender reffing game 4

[TimberKat]

Funny how the narrative had changed. It was all about small ball a few years ago. Everyone thinks Wolves were crazy making the Gobert trade. When the trade happened, Connelly and Finch said they see the new trend coming and other teams are going to have to figure out how to play big to match up with us and everyone laughs including Chuck and Shaq.

that's not entirely accurate. Gobert just came off yet another season in which he dominated on D in the rs and was borderline unplayable in the playoffs. Wolves were correct in thinking this was a personnel and scheme issue and not an innate issue with Gobert himself, so good on them

however, the bulk of the criticm for that trade was because it was universally felt the price they paid was a.) way too steep b.) way above the market value of Gobert at the time and c.)that they were bidding against themselves..no1 could figure out why they offered so much when Aingle was clearly very interested in selling and no1 else but them was buying

it was less about the actual basketball fit even tho like I said, there were plenty of doubts regarding that as well at the time and it makes sense if u consider Gobert's playoff play on those Utah teams

We don’t know if they were bidding against another team. I could see OKC, NYK, BOS be interested.

Wolves essentially traded the 22nd in 2022 (already picked so less value) and 4 future first for Gobert (2023 turn into #17 , two unprotected, one top 5 protected). All the Twolves players included were purely for salary matching. The alternative would be JMcD, 22nd pick in 2022 and 2 future unprotected (2023 turn into #17 and 2025 unprotected). While including JMcD seem more fair value but I would keep him instead. Depending on how much you value Gobert’s impact to the team, I don’t think Wolves overpaid by much.

Wolves were looking to add core talent and there isn’t a lot of grade A available and willing to play for an unproven team. While Gobert/Towns may not be the perfect combo, who else could they had added? KD, Beal, or Lillard? Porzingis maybe the only good alternative.

There were a lot of people who thinks Gobert/Towns doesn’t work on the court too but the bottom line is the trade turned one of the worse defensive team into the best. Trading DLo for Conley/NAW also helped.

[Oscirus]

Lebron avoided the first out distinction, now its time to see if Durant can do the same

[jkvonny]

Suns mite win tonite, but the series is pretty much over.

May end up being 4-1 TWolves.

[Phystic]

Please just put this joke of a team out of their misery. Voting wolves in 6 was apparently a complete insult to the wolves.

[Wolfgang630]

Sorry suns want to win at least one game

[Calvin Klein]

The most depressing playoff game ever for suns fans. Let’s see if they have a tiny minuscule bit of pride left.

[Zeno]

Will this be the 4th straight elimination game blow-out loss for the Suns?

[Dubnation]

Oh no. Scott Foster tonight.