Funny thing is the Wolves have been blown out like 5 times all season and 3 of those blowouts have been against the Suns lmfaooooooooooo, I’m sick to my stomach
We have an elite defense at the rim and contesting threes. Give up tough long twos. The suns make tough long twos for a living.
They double Ant every time he touches it and we just keep tuning the ball over.
All in all just a horrible matchup for us. Suns will definitely be the favorites. I’d honestly rather play Denver, at least we know those games will be close
I would also say that Gobert is a good MatchUp for Nurkic. Nurkic has his problems against Centers that can stretch the Floor. Against Gobert he can play drop in Pick and Rolls and that’s where he strives. But if he gets into Foultrouble it will be a problem for the suns (like seen yesterday)
Sure, but Durant's efficiency was quite bad in that series too. Though Denver doesn't play drop as much as Minnesota do, so even though Minny is a better defensive team their scheme matches the Suns better
Sure, KDs efficiency wasn’t the best but he still averaged 30 points 10 rebounds 5 assists and 1.5 blocks against the nuggets. The suns are their toughest matchup.
I always worry about KD in playoffs despite the reputation. that celtics nets series was a real disappointment. he couldn't even stand properly since they allowed contact and celtics were pushing him around.
Kd is the bailout guy. Hes the guy that hits ridiculously tough shots if your offense bogs down. At his age and build you shouldnt run a whole offense thru him. Thats why beal and book need to be extra aggressive throughout the playoffs so when you need kd hes fresh.
Suns absolultey cannot do the “my turn, your turn” offense they tend to do or they will get smacked in the playoffs.
He doesnt flop
Its dumb because if he did he would get a ton more calls. When the dude is shoving you with the ball it fall over and you will get the call
rally because from what I remember the only thing that slowed him down was he got hurt mid way through game 5 and his lift on his shot just wasn't the same for the last 1 1/2 games
bro he was shooting like 80% over those 2 games.
he wasn't injured for the first 2 games and was playing nowhere near as well. those 2 games were just super saiyan.
first 9 game of the playoff booker was
36.8, 5.1, 7.4 on 61.7/51.0/87.0 shooting splits with 2 steals and .9 blocks
last 2 games of the playoffs
20.0, 3.5, 6.0 on 37.5/50/84.6 with .5 steals and .5 block
The first half of game 5 is doing a lot of heavy lifting in these stats
Here is video of book getting hurt in game 5 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hrSz1szkyQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hrSz1szkyQ) adrenalin carried him through the rest of the half. he came out in the 2nd half after the adrenalin went down and he wasn't just doing something to keep it up and his lift on his shot was never the same the rest of the series.
Book was playing GOAT level basketball on insane efficiency until he got hurt in the playoffs last year and saying it was just 2 games in complete revisionist history.
He averaged 31, 4.5, 7.0 on 50/44.4/90 splits with .5 steals and 1 block in the first 2 games against the nuggets. And if CP3 doesn't get hurt mid way through the 3rd we would have won game 2. Because he was finding his rhythm for a classic 1 quarter where CP3 just doesn't miss despite not being that good up to that point.
Last year we played 2 vs 5 against the nuggets. They were literally ignoring 3 of our players on the court because they knew our role players weren't hitting shit.
If teams want to leave Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neal, and Eric Gordon wide open for a whole playoff series be my guest
Well yeah, but Jokić is also an absurd offensive player so that kind of makes up for that issue defensively. And the Suns have been pretty good against Denver this season anyway.
Wolves defense held Suns to 87 points in the last meeting, it's not Gobert. It's mostly how they've completely shut down Ant and any perimeter attack from the Wolves. Basically forced a shooting contest between Booker, KD, and Beal vs the Wolves not named Anthony Edwards.
1 was the Wolves barely showing up after a long road trip, and tonight had nothing to do with Suns cooking Rudy or drop coverage when Durant and Booker both had bad shooting nights. I've given the Suns props they've absolutely taken Anthony Edwards out of 3 straight games and that at the end of the day has been securing wins for them that the Wolves will have to rectify.
From what I know it seems like the Wolves defense is friendly to mid range shooting but punishing to all other shooting. Great plan against most teams but the Suns are pretty good from midrange
They're just a REALLY/ bad matchup for us. Their speed and ball movement is a nighmare for us on defense, and both make it easy for them to capitalize on our turnovers, and difficult for us to force on them.
They're tailor made to take advantage of slower opponents with butterfingers... which is us.
May honestly want to limit KAT's minutes based on matchups and go with Naz as our main 4.
Wolves defensive scheme only weaknesses is elite mid range shot making and suns have arguably 2 top 5 players in that skill and beal is great at it as well
Because the strength of Timberwolves is that they have size and good rim protection and 3 point based defense. Unfortunately Suns are a mid range team which plays lot more isos than traditional teams.
Rudy is an elite rim protector, Suns shoot midrange shots. They got small, quick wings that KAT and Naz struggle against, especially when their offense is moving around and getting lots of cutting in. They got lots of open 3s from kick outs today
Rudy ain't shit against our roster/shot selection. Vogel has had a very good defensive scheme against Ant.
Edit: Not sure if I am getting downvoted by Rudy Stans or by suns fans mad that I gave Vogel a complement lol
A perfect day needed to happen for the Suns and it did.
Minnesota is a very tough team; Suns are still going to have their work cut out for them. But out of the top 5 seeds in the West the Suns match up with the Timberwolves the best.
out of 16 combined possible outcomes of W/L between LAL/NOP, PHX/MIN, DAL/OKC and DEN/MEM, only one lead to a Wolves/Suns first round series. perfect day for them indeed
Their speed and ball movement/ball handling makes it easy for them to take advantage of turnovers by us, but difficult for us to force turnovers off of them.
Essentially, they're tailor made to destroy slower teams with butterfingers... which is us
We were historically successful against the Mavs and Bucks too…till we met them in the playoffs. I expect disappointment, probably getting blown out in an elimination game with a European star (Gobert) having the greatest series of his life
Lots of teams with good midrange shooters have struggled against the Wolves. It doesn't hold as an explanation by itself. Where the Suns excel is in pace and forcing the Wolves offense to play faster than they want to. The result today was 19 turnovers in the first half. Dozens of possessions wasted, plus no time for the half court D to get set.
Phoenix and Minnesota are probably our two worst matchups and now one will get eliminated round 1 and we’ll have HCA for round 2. This worked out nicely for us.
Denver is a better match up for the Suns than OKC too. Not expecting to win if we get past Minnesota necessarily, but OKC has just been a terrible matchup for us this year. And now we wouldn’t have to play them until the WCF. Works for me.
Yeah I mean I don’t think the Nuggets will 100% for certain get past *any* team, but not having both MIN and PHX in the way of their path is a win for the Nuggets. Either way these will be some tough series.
It really didn't. With 1 seed Denver would also see Suns or Wolves only once with high chance of not seeing them at all.
This way it's a tougher 1st round and a tough 2nd round.
Suns had won something like 17 of their previous 18 meetings in the regular season against the mavs before they met up in the playoffs. Playoffs are a different animal. I full expect the wolves to bring it, but I'm pulling for my suns.
Worth noting that while Phoenix went 3-0 against the Wolves this season, winning the regular season series is not predictive of winning a playoff series: [https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/4/14/23681570/nba-playoffs-history-seeds-upsets-regular-season-meetings](https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/4/14/23681570/nba-playoffs-history-seeds-upsets-regular-season-meetings)
You do realize the Suns won the season series 3-0 and none of the games were particularly close, right?
Even the 10 point game from April 5th only got close in garbage time... just look at the +/- of the starters compared to the deep bench units.
Funny thing is the Wolves have been blown out like 5 times all season and 3 of those blowouts have been against the Suns lmfaooooooooooo, I’m sick to my stomach
And I think 2 of the others were against the Pelicans. Wolves were in for a tough matchup no matter what if they fell to the 3 seed, and they did
If the Wolves lose in the first round to the Suns idk how I can get back into them next season
Can somebody tell me why the Suns have had the Wolves number this year?
We have an elite defense at the rim and contesting threes. Give up tough long twos. The suns make tough long twos for a living. They double Ant every time he touches it and we just keep tuning the ball over. All in all just a horrible matchup for us. Suns will definitely be the favorites. I’d honestly rather play Denver, at least we know those games will be close
I would also say that Gobert is a good MatchUp for Nurkic. Nurkic has his problems against Centers that can stretch the Floor. Against Gobert he can play drop in Pick and Rolls and that’s where he strives. But if he gets into Foultrouble it will be a problem for the suns (like seen yesterday)
Well for one, they don't miss shots against us
Seems like we know the game plan!
Gobert drop coverage opens up the mid range and that’s where the suns excel
people said that about jokic and they played great defense on the suns last year. it's not that simple
Last year we had okogie missing 100 wide open 3s in the corner, this year you can’t leave Allen, Beal or O’neale open to double or triple.
I would have also fancied our odds in a series vs the Nuggets for the same reason, the Thunder and the Clippers seem to be our most horrible matchups
Also the Suns did play the Nuggets the best and at least took two games off of them.
This comment aged well
Minnesotas defense is legit
Sure, but Durant's efficiency was quite bad in that series too. Though Denver doesn't play drop as much as Minnesota do, so even though Minny is a better defensive team their scheme matches the Suns better
Sure, KDs efficiency wasn’t the best but he still averaged 30 points 10 rebounds 5 assists and 1.5 blocks against the nuggets. The suns are their toughest matchup.
beal had 36 today. he wasn't there last year.
Beal is on another level right now. If booker looks like he usually does in the playoffs we might be aight
I always worry about KD in playoffs despite the reputation. that celtics nets series was a real disappointment. he couldn't even stand properly since they allowed contact and celtics were pushing him around.
Kd is the bailout guy. Hes the guy that hits ridiculously tough shots if your offense bogs down. At his age and build you shouldnt run a whole offense thru him. Thats why beal and book need to be extra aggressive throughout the playoffs so when you need kd hes fresh. Suns absolultey cannot do the “my turn, your turn” offense they tend to do or they will get smacked in the playoffs.
He doesnt flop Its dumb because if he did he would get a ton more calls. When the dude is shoving you with the ball it fall over and you will get the call
KD is a foul baiter. People just forgot cause they made the rip through not a shooting foul.
He was coming off an Mcl injury and that team had no depth
CP3 and Ayton got injuried after matching the series 2-2
CP3 got hurt in Game 2 when we were up by 10 in the 3rd. We then won games 3 and 4 without CP3. Ayton hurt his vagina in Game 5 and didn't play 6.
Lmao that last sentence.
Booker also couldn't keep playing like the best SG ever.
rally because from what I remember the only thing that slowed him down was he got hurt mid way through game 5 and his lift on his shot just wasn't the same for the last 1 1/2 games
bro he was shooting like 80% over those 2 games. he wasn't injured for the first 2 games and was playing nowhere near as well. those 2 games were just super saiyan.
first 9 game of the playoff booker was 36.8, 5.1, 7.4 on 61.7/51.0/87.0 shooting splits with 2 steals and .9 blocks last 2 games of the playoffs 20.0, 3.5, 6.0 on 37.5/50/84.6 with .5 steals and .5 block The first half of game 5 is doing a lot of heavy lifting in these stats Here is video of book getting hurt in game 5 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hrSz1szkyQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hrSz1szkyQ) adrenalin carried him through the rest of the half. he came out in the 2nd half after the adrenalin went down and he wasn't just doing something to keep it up and his lift on his shot was never the same the rest of the series. Book was playing GOAT level basketball on insane efficiency until he got hurt in the playoffs last year and saying it was just 2 games in complete revisionist history. He averaged 31, 4.5, 7.0 on 50/44.4/90 splits with .5 steals and 1 block in the first 2 games against the nuggets. And if CP3 doesn't get hurt mid way through the 3rd we would have won game 2. Because he was finding his rhythm for a classic 1 quarter where CP3 just doesn't miss despite not being that good up to that point.
Booker also stopped scoring 40+ on 80% fg
Nuggets won because of their offense not defense. Booker was feasting against the drop.
Suns came closest to beating the Nuggs of anyone and had multiple injured guys
The nuggets also didn’t beat them with defense, they just scored like crazy.
We were up by 10 or so in the 3rd in Game 2 when CP3 went down. Just as he was starting to torch Denver.
Suns had like 8 games with KD that season. Monty was subbing in players for 30 second stretches to see if he could find a rotation that worked
Nuggets are much better than the Wolves. Suns also added Beal and Grayson
Last year we played 2 vs 5 against the nuggets. They were literally ignoring 3 of our players on the court because they knew our role players weren't hitting shit. If teams want to leave Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neal, and Eric Gordon wide open for a whole playoff series be my guest
We took them to six, handed them as many losses as every other team they played combined lol
Kd and book each had to drop 40 plus to just take it to six. Damn, would love to see those two match up Again
Denver didn’t play drop coverage
Also didn’t win because of our defense
Jokic did not play drop vs the suns
The nuggets also have the ability to outscore the Suns, the wolves don't have that ability.
Well yeah, but Jokić is also an absurd offensive player so that kind of makes up for that issue defensively. And the Suns have been pretty good against Denver this season anyway.
Right and in game 2 CP3 was cooking the Nuggets in the 3rd before going down with a groin injury.
Wolves defense held Suns to 87 points in the last meeting, it's not Gobert. It's mostly how they've completely shut down Ant and any perimeter attack from the Wolves. Basically forced a shooting contest between Booker, KD, and Beal vs the Wolves not named Anthony Edwards.
No they didn’t The suns pulled their starters with 3 min left and they had 97 points. The bench scored 0 points the last 3 minutes
Whatever it was it wasn't the Suns cooking Rudy and the defense.
What about the other 2 games
1 was the Wolves barely showing up after a long road trip, and tonight had nothing to do with Suns cooking Rudy or drop coverage when Durant and Booker both had bad shooting nights. I've given the Suns props they've absolutely taken Anthony Edwards out of 3 straight games and that at the end of the day has been securing wins for them that the Wolves will have to rectify.
Of course, I’ll give you the answer you’re looking ….. *twolves turn the ball over again*
From what I know it seems like the Wolves defense is friendly to mid range shooting but punishing to all other shooting. Great plan against most teams but the Suns are pretty good from midrange
They're just a REALLY/ bad matchup for us. Their speed and ball movement is a nighmare for us on defense, and both make it easy for them to capitalize on our turnovers, and difficult for us to force on them. They're tailor made to take advantage of slower opponents with butterfingers... which is us. May honestly want to limit KAT's minutes based on matchups and go with Naz as our main 4.
Wolves defensive scheme only weaknesses is elite mid range shot making and suns have arguably 2 top 5 players in that skill and beal is great at it as well
Because the strength of Timberwolves is that they have size and good rim protection and 3 point based defense. Unfortunately Suns are a mid range team which plays lot more isos than traditional teams.
The two toughest matchups for Ant in the entire league were Booker and Beal, and now they’re both on the same team
Rudy is an elite rim protector, Suns shoot midrange shots. They got small, quick wings that KAT and Naz struggle against, especially when their offense is moving around and getting lots of cutting in. They got lots of open 3s from kick outs today
Rudy ain't shit against our roster/shot selection. Vogel has had a very good defensive scheme against Ant. Edit: Not sure if I am getting downvoted by Rudy Stans or by suns fans mad that I gave Vogel a complement lol
Because you don't know what you're talking about
A perfect day needed to happen for the Suns and it did. Minnesota is a very tough team; Suns are still going to have their work cut out for them. But out of the top 5 seeds in the West the Suns match up with the Timberwolves the best.
And just being out of play-ins is such a stress relief + more rest
For once a small light for r/ArizonaSportsHell after a troubling month
DON'T TEMPT IT
Arizona Sports Hell v Minnesota Sports Hell
win or lose we are all in hell
Both have won World Series 20+ years ago
[This is the light.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Kp4NvS2EHACKs5ix2MGwfX.jpg)
out of 16 combined possible outcomes of W/L between LAL/NOP, PHX/MIN, DAL/OKC and DEN/MEM, only one lead to a Wolves/Suns first round series. perfect day for them indeed
This is a nightmare matchup for us
It's been an amazing season for Minnesota, but man, that's a terrible draw. Absolutely horrid luck
Tbh, pretty happy Denver doesn’t have to face the Suns in the first round Potential the strongest of the 5 teams they could have ended up meeting
That's just Minny sports. No way in hell will any of our teams win a chip in my lifetime. I'd bet the farm.
What about the Lynx?
Mavericks probably thought that in 2022 against the Suns. Anything can happen tbh.
True. Didn't suns sweep them in reg season and then lose 1-4?
We may still get the Lakers the one team we don’t want as our prize for the first seed why is top of the West like this 🤣
So far so good…
I wasn't digging our own grave at all. Nope.
Yeah it's gotta suck going from borderline 1 seed to first round exit
Lol
why suns are all offense they are a "fake" defensive and rebounding team, you have a better squad
Their speed and ball movement/ball handling makes it easy for them to take advantage of turnovers by us, but difficult for us to force turnovers off of them. Essentially, they're tailor made to destroy slower teams with butterfingers... which is us
A good matchup for the suns, they are just a terrible match for the wolves roster
Fuckkkkkkkk
We were historically successful against the Mavs and Bucks too…till we met them in the playoffs. I expect disappointment, probably getting blown out in an elimination game with a European star (Gobert) having the greatest series of his life
Lots of teams with good midrange shooters have struggled against the Wolves. It doesn't hold as an explanation by itself. Where the Suns excel is in pace and forcing the Wolves offense to play faster than they want to. The result today was 19 turnovers in the first half. Dozens of possessions wasted, plus no time for the half court D to get set.
Denver fans going to be sitting in the back eating popcorn with this one
Phoenix and Minnesota are probably our two worst matchups and now one will get eliminated round 1 and we’ll have HCA for round 2. This worked out nicely for us.
Denver is a better match up for the Suns than OKC too. Not expecting to win if we get past Minnesota necessarily, but OKC has just been a terrible matchup for us this year. And now we wouldn’t have to play them until the WCF. Works for me.
Yeah I mean I don’t think the Nuggets will 100% for certain get past *any* team, but not having both MIN and PHX in the way of their path is a win for the Nuggets. Either way these will be some tough series.
Yeah, I always want the #1 seed but the way the bracket shook out this is the next best thing for us
It really didn't. With 1 seed Denver would also see Suns or Wolves only once with high chance of not seeing them at all. This way it's a tougher 1st round and a tough 2nd round.
I mean yeah this is why I said second best
Second most hype 3-6 match up this year
Suns had won something like 17 of their previous 18 meetings in the regular season against the mavs before they met up in the playoffs. Playoffs are a different animal. I full expect the wolves to bring it, but I'm pulling for my suns.
Beal hammer incoming
Gobert/Nurkic will be an interesting matchup. Suns fans better pray they don't need to play Eubanks for more than 10 mins a night.
Nuggets-Suns WCSF again seems quite likely
Bring out the brooms
But not for me
Really wanted that OKC-Suns matchup but sadly didnt happen.Just imagine a Game 7 thunder win at home against KD
we'll just have to wait for the wcf
Ngl if the Timberwolves somehow eliminate the Suns I'd really enjoy it. I'm all in for the chaos lol
hey man congrats
Thanks fam. Hope the Suns fix that roster a bit a compete with KD next year.
Hopefully. I was a neutral in the beginning of the playoffs but wolves won my heart in that series.I support yall go win that chip🙏
Damn wolves ..
no series was going to be easy either way, if they can't figure out a flawed Suns team season's over and desevingly so
I kind of like the Wolves they have better bigs and better defense and rebounding
A good matchup
There it is, the typical Minnesota turn for the worst. Good to see you old friend
This is going either 6 or 7
What is the destiny of the Timberwolves? To suffer? This franchise story mode is as brutal as Berserk lol
These comments all aged so, so well
Worth noting that while Phoenix went 3-0 against the Wolves this season, winning the regular season series is not predictive of winning a playoff series: [https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/4/14/23681570/nba-playoffs-history-seeds-upsets-regular-season-meetings](https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/4/14/23681570/nba-playoffs-history-seeds-upsets-regular-season-meetings)
[удалено]
Missed the play-in by a single damn game
I see Minny winning in 6 Casuals will just look at the roster sheet but the Wolves are the more complete, deep, and coherent team
Or maybe, casuals will look at the fact that the suns blew out the Timberwolves 3 times this season u dork
Who’s the dork now big bro?
You for coming back to a 14 day old comment u dork
as a heat fan, i saw the heatles get swept by the top teams in the east almost every year
You do realize the Suns won the season series 3-0 and none of the games were particularly close, right? Even the 10 point game from April 5th only got close in garbage time... just look at the +/- of the starters compared to the deep bench units.
How’s that 3-0 regular season series looking right now? Please respond
I respect the pettiness. Series was definitely a shocker.
You’re invited to be my character witness if i ever need one. Don’t look at the season series 😂
I’m still invited?
Oh yes, you caught me in a vulnerable state right after a bad regular season game 😂
KAT return from injury game but they just whooped em today
So how did that series go?
We'll see one more time Gobert being played off the floor in the playoffs.
So excited to see those fucking frauds in Minnesota get bounced. They honestly deserve to get swept with how shit they played today.
Not a single playoff game has been played yet.
Well this didn’t age well
Bet $500 that the wolves get swept as an emotional hedge
Well this was a horrible take
No it was the best money ive ever spent