The Timberwolves blew out the Suns for a third straight game in the first round of the playoffs on Friday. Anthony Edwards impressed with his shot-making in Game 1; his play-making stood out in Game 2; and in Game 3, he put it all together, Chris Hine of The Star Tribune writes. Edwards had 36 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the 126-109 win to bring the Wolves within one win of their first playoff series win 20 years.
“He’s a smart player he just has had a lot to learn and he’s learned it a lot,” head coach Chris Finch said. “He’s benefiting and we’re really benefiting.”
Edwards has outplayed Phoenix star Devin Booker through three games, averaging 28.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists to Booker’s 20.3 PPG and 6.0 APG. No team has ever come back from the 3-0 deficit which Phoenix finds itself in.
“We don’t think we broke their spirit until we win Game 4,” Edwards said. “We gotta win Game 4 and then we can say we broke their spirit. You never know man, a lot of crazy things happen.”
For his part, Edwards said he isn’t planning on relenting any time soon.
“I just want to kill everything in front of me,” Edwards said, via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps (Twitter link). “That’s the main thing, pretty much. That’s all there is to it.”
We have more notes on the Wolves:
- The Wolves have fully arrived, James L. Edwards III of The Athletic writes. After years without one, Minnesota has an identity, characterized by elite defense and stars. “I don’t care what happened beforehand,” Finch said. “The reality is that we have a bunch of guys who love playing together, play hard and play the right way. They’re young. They let me coach them hard. It’s been fun. That’s been the foundation of being able to grow this little by little. A long way to go for us, but we don’t really care what happened before because that doesn’t relate to any of us.“
- Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who was widely viewed as a throw-in in the Mike Conley trade at the 2023 deadline, has come up huge in the playoffs. Alexander-Walker, making $4.3MM next season, hit four big three-pointers in the third quarter and the Wolves outscored Phoenix 32-16 in his minutes. Through three games, he’s averaging 14.7 PPG and 4.0 APG and is shooting 39.1% from deep on 7.7 attempts per contest. Finch complimented the fifth-year guard’s defense and shot-making after the game, according to James Edwards (Twitter link). Alexander-Walker said the credit goes to his teammates, Hine writes. “[Anthony Edwards] trusts me,” Alexander-Walker said. “I think the cool thing about it is none of those shots really go in tonight without the trust of my teammates. To have that feeling, it’s a really good one.“
- While they allowed 109 points in Game 3, the Wolves held Phoenix under 100 points in each of the first two games of the series. Jim Souhan of The Star Tribune analyzes seven plays that highlight Minnesota’s dominance on defense. In the regular season, the Wolves led the league in defensive rating and opposing points per game.
Suns never had a real chance, everyone knew they had no depth when KD got traded there. They moved Ayton for nothing, Beal has never been a winning player. Minnesota is deep and physical which is a terrible match up for them.
How do you think the Wolves match up with the nuggets? If it gets that far? Might be able to test them a little bit? Or will the Nuggets run through them?
Denver in 5 games. Minnesota will struggle to score. Minnesota is playing good basketball. Don’t get fooled by the offensive output against Phoenix, who is just horrible defensively. Opponents scoring 120 points on Phoenix is normal, especially if the Big 3 are playing. They don’t have the ability to turn up the defensive intensity in the Playoffs. With who?? Eric Gordon?? Grayson Allen?? Nurkic?? Brad Beal?? They will see the opposite from a Denver team that has great confidence that they can shut opponents down for stretches like they did against the Lakers after going down 20 in the 3rd quarter. Held the Lakers to like 31 points in the entire second half. It will be a physical series. Same rule continues to apply. Nobody can stop Jokic. He has dealt with Gobert his entire career.
Nuggets should win.
Jokic can tire Gobert out and forces him to come to the 3 point line. If Kat wants to defend him he can try, but then Gordon is extending Gobert out either way. KAT needs to take Gordon inside for offense if they want a real chance.
Edwards probably gets his but the series won’t be about him.
Seems like y’all didn’t watch their games during the season. Wolves can handle the nuggets. They had the season advantage if it came down to a tie. No one can neutralize joker, but they have the size and physicality to stop him from owning the game.
And the Suns whopped the Wolves during the regular season. The playoffs are an entirely different animal.
With that said, I think the Wolves will give them some trouble. Wouldn’t surprise me if this series goes 7 games.
Wolves in 7. Yall asleep
The Wolves matchup well with the Nuggets. In last year’s playoffs The Wolves lost the series 4-1 but with the exception of game 1 the Wolves hung with the Nuggets in every game. The Wolves are better than last season, they have more cohesion, McDaniels is available and another season under ANT’s belt. The Nuggets are still great obviously but there’s no Jeff Green or Bruce Brown to come off the bench.
That’s what the laker cheerleaders been saying all year. Got beat 4 zip but it was a close 4 zip. Only thing stopping Denver is injury.
Injuries and possibly the Wolves or Thunder.
Phoenix is a complete mess. Booker, Durant and Beal have no chemistry and don’t seem to have any bond whatsoever. Just three dudes waiting to get the ball to try and get a bucket, that is typically not a three-pointer. Brad Beal was laughing with a teammate, who saw no minutes in the game, coming out of a timeout in the 3rd quarter with Phoenix down 17 points. It basically didn’t matter to him.
Booker moves like he is running in sand.
$70 million for Grayson Allen???
Frank Vogel????
Suns need 3 things
1. defense
2. a big man like Arron Gordon
3. a point guard like Haliburton
Spend the money wisely by trading Beal for 2 starters
Suns next season total salary: $205 million
Salary cap: $141 million
Tax
First Apron: $180 million.
Second Apron: $190 million.
All the first round picks have been traded away, now you have to trade stars.
lol. He has a no trade clause. On the wrong side of 30 & makes 50 million a year for 3 more years.
Teams are going to be lining up for that.
Ishiba made his bed. Time to go to sleep.
I’m confused. Just about every analyst picked the Suns to win the series, but now they’re all behind the wolves?
As a wolves fan, I’ve watched all year as they were mostly ignored in basketball coverage. They were number 1 most of the year, but you’d see highlights before anchors went into 20 mins on lebron and lakers losing another game (or one of the few other teams they care about).
I hope the wolves keep winning, and keep a chip on their back after being doubted all year (except by fans and Midwest media).
A super team is filled with incredibly talented superstars, but it doesn’t mean they are a good team.
Suns are a bad team. Wolves are beating a bad team. It doesn’t mean Wolves can go deep in the playoffs
Ant talks like he has won something. Talented but to much talk. Goober goebert and limping Kat plus ant should dismantle suns silly Silliman and I agree
I’m also confused. I read EVERYWHERE that the Gobert trade was stupid and you can’t play 2 big men on the court at the same time
I didn’t get the whole idea that you can’t play two big men either. Towns is maybe fifteen pounds bigger than Gordon and the Nuggets won it all last season. The Lakers won in the bubble with JaVale McGee and Anthony Davis both starting. The Bucks won with Giannis and Lopez starting. Towns is a perimeter player while Gobert plays inside, it’s not like they get in each other’s way.
Haven’t won anything yet. If winning a first round series was the goal then the double big on Max was well worth it. Sun’s wouldn’t even be in the playoffs if had to go through the play in.
National media doesn’t watch Twolves games. Too busy trying to get a few last whiffs of lebrons jock before he retires.
I admittedly thought the Suns would win this series in 5 or 6 games because “stars win games in the playoffs”, but I realize how wrong I was. They have no depth or chemistry, just three guys taking turns playing iso ball.
Said it mutiple times during the season, but the suns needed to trade Beal for depth and defence.
They didn’t need a third star to average 20 points per game with a similar skill set to what they already have in Booker.
They did well bringing in vets like Royce and Thad I thought but clearly it wasn’t enough.
Goodluck trying to value for him now after you get swept in the first round. That contract was bad enough but without any great performances it’s going to be hard to try find any takers.
Here some possibly suggestions maybe
1. Bradley Beal, David Roddy and 2 seconds for Jordan Clarkson and John Collins
2. Bradley Beal and Nas Little for Ben Simmons, Dennis Schroder and a second round pick.
You can’t combine salaries next year if over apron 2 to send out which Phx is w ease
Beal also has a no trade clause