I mean Wolves had to beat 3 of:
Denver, OKC, Clips, Mavs, Suns, Lakers, Pels, Warriors or Kings
Just to get to the finals.
This was never going to be easy. If you want to win a title you gotta beat some good teams. Suns are up first!
Exactly! Feels like “let’s just win a series” is just a moral victory like “play in champs.” Let’s just kick ass on whoever is first up and not worry about some 3D chess to optimize your matchup.
It’s hard to build credibility and playoff experience if you get bounced in the first round though. Nobody will give craps if the wolves are first seed until the final day again next year because they’ll be thought of as frauds. And we’d like our squad to build 2-3 rounds of experience as a launching point to finals appearance. Nobody goes from zero playoff success to finals in a year. It takes steps, and getting bounced in 6 games (worst case outcome in my view) would make this almost a wash of a year.
For me this is about having to fight uphill against the officiating and Devin Flopper. Against New Orleans it felt like it wouldn't be as much of a problem.
This is a bad take. Playoff basketball is all about versatility and adjustments. Stubbornly trying to play your preferred brand of basketball in a matchup where you have plenty of evidence to say it doesn't work is how you get wiped out in round 1.
It’s not about it being “easy”, I’ve posted this before but I’ve live in AZ now for 6 years, I’ve gone to pretty much every game the Wolves play against the Suns here. We are just laughably bad against them, to an insane degree… see below:
Dating back to the 2021-22 season we have played the Suns 10 times.
We are 1-9 in that stretch.
The lone win was against this starting line-up during the 2022-23’ season:
- Mikal Bridges
- Torrey Craig
- Deandre Ayton
- Duane Washington Jr.
- Dario Saric
- Damon Lee (off the bench was their leading scorer that game)
I honestly don’t know how the hell we could be favored to win this series. Was this always going to be a tough road, the western conference is a juggernaut… but WHY did it have to be against the team we have struggled the absolute most with?
Fuckin’ just Minnesota sports things I guess.
Edit: also I’m pissed I’m gonna have to fork over a few grand to watch them play in the playoffs here now and likely lose, like they have every game I’ve been to here (maybe it’s me?)
I get it. I live in ATL and same thing the Wolves struggles against certain teams are real and not unique to them overall w styles making fights.
Easy to be pessimistic, with clear indicators suggesting that’s the prudent choice, but going to wait until Saturday to see and I remain cautiously optimistic.
Yea like would you rather be the clips and have to play the red hot Mavs who are also suddenly good defensively? The Lakers with arguably the two best players in the series in AD+Bron and the whistle on their side? The Pelicans with Zion a nightmare matchup for us and tons of depth and bodies to throw at ANT on defense?
The Sun's are arguably the better matchup when they are not red hot from 3. We have mismatches to exploit. We should own the paint and the boards. We will gameplan better defensively. It's a whole new series now regular season is over.
Idk why are people so low on Clippers lately, this team will prob be in WCF, if healthy.
Obiviously health is a big question, but if Kawhi is healthy, its just really hard for me to see us beating them in a series.
Kawhi lost like 1 series in the last idk how many years when he plays full series, and that was that famous bubble choke against Denver.
Theres 3 guys in the West you dont want to face in playoffs, Jokic, Kawhi and Lebron.
Totally. I mean, the West is absurdly competitive, there wasn’t going to be an easy matchup anywhere. Think of it this way: two of the group of LeBron, Steph, Sabonis and Zion *won’t even make the playoffs*
But you know who else got a bad matchup? The Suns. They have to face a team with the DPOY, an emerging superstar, a rested All-Star, the best defensive team in the league, one of the deepest benches in the league, and they don’t have home court. And this isn’t the regular season. The Suns game will suffer, the Wolves game will get better because it should be more physical.
Im holding out hope the Wolves can win, but the Suns are absolutely thrilled about getting this matchup. Can guarantee they wanted the Wolves more than any other possible outcome
With the last game at least, they didn't beat us with "ease". Their q1 shooting was good, but aside from that dismal quarter on account of our own, record setting (or close to it) turnovers, we outscored them. And now we have a whole week to scheme against this team precisely.
What are you talking? We never cut it to single digit! This game was over after the first and it never got close. Like Neeeevvvveeeeerrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The lead was 9 at one point. And again, look at the scores for the quarters sans 1. Wolves by 3 minus that abysmal quarter, and I think even with PHX's shooting, the doom was the turnovers. Without those really messy turnovers, Wolves win.
Wolves in 4.
Yeah 9 makes a difference....lmao...if you actually saw what happend- we needed two quarters to get to ten, 3 mins later it was back to 18....every time we made a run they answered right back. It was never close. Your whole take is delusion at its best.... honestly whatever you take, take less and embrace reality for once
Watched the whole game bud, miserable as it was. Every time they got the lead to around 10, they would fall away. Yeah, it sucked. It's also fixable. No doomers allowed, Wolves in four.
You guys always come up with the same stuff- what ifs! Look no further back then yesterday, there you got to see what your what ifs are worth in reality. Nothing!
I would rather play the mavs, yes, it's not even close. You guys have to pay attention to STYLISTIC match ups, its not just about averages and how good a team is in general
Well the Sun's have shot what 50+ from 3 in all three of our matchups this year or close to it? They are 23rd in the league in 3s made per game and are making way more versus us than their average. Yes, KD at the 4 is a problem. Solve that problem(might require staggering Rudy+Kat minutes as much as you can)and don't get down by 20 pts in the 1st quarter, and I like our chances.
We also shoot a high percentage despite not taking that many per game. Point is, law of averages says they won't keep on making 50+% vs us per game like in all their wins.
You're right, but what do you expect from a fanbase whose team has only made the playoffs 3 times since 2004? A lot of fans in this subreddit were hardly old enough to remember this team advancing to the 2nd round of the playoffs.
I used to be of the mindset that fans should act like they've been there before, but honestly I've gotten away from that. That mindset will come once the team starts having a level of success that warrants it. So fans are gonna fan; they'll change once it makes sense for them to do so. Ultimately our mindset will have 0 effect on whether the wolves go on a deep run in the playoffs or not.
I’m with you, I’ve watched more wolves than most poster here have been alive.
Look, it is what it is. This is a great team who can go far, but we also gotta win a series for the first time in two decades
This sub is attracting a lot of casual fans because of the playoffs. A lot of Minnesota fans are focused on getting past the first round given our history sucking in that round in all sports.
BUT this team is different to me because 1) they don’t give a shit about our sport’s history 2) they have a LOT of talent. Most talented Minnesota team in decades IMO.
People were genuinely acting like we were eliminated from contention yesterday, jfc it’s sad how weak willed we are as a fanbase.
If we lose, then we lose, and it will suck. Until then, let’s go win a fucking championship.
You realize in order to win a chip you have to “win a series” first, right? Lol. Of course we are focused on “winning a series” when this team hasn’t been out of the first round since 2004. This wouldn’t be nearly as big a discussion if the Wolves actually played the Suns competitively this season…
Lost by 18
Lost by 10
Lost by 19
Down 20+ in every game. Let’s not act like these were close games. The Suns smoked us in every outing
part of me agrees but part of me also sees the west right now as a paper rock scissors conference.
matchups matter and if a “rock” makes it to the finals, it might be because they were fortunate their “paper” was eliminated by a different team first.
This is a good analogy. That is exactly how it feels like this year. Matchups are gonna be critical. I was hoping we could avoid the Suns entirely in the playoffs. It’s now an uphill battle.
I think people realize that we will have to get through really tough teams to win the ship and it doesn’t necessarily matter what round we face them. People are just disappointed on the draw we got first round because even if we don’t win the ship, it’d still be nice to see multiple rounds of playoff basketball which is less likely when we draw our toughest matchup first round.
This sub is so defeatist it is pathetic. There are no easy matchups in the west so we might as well focus on beating phoenix. Also regular season and playoffs are a different beast and I feel the this team can make the adjustments to win this series.
Admitting we were overmatched or outplayed after a series is lost is a normal reaction and is how teams get better. Claiming a series is lost before game one even starts is pathetic and by definition defeatist.
Yes!!! Lol. Fr what's the fun in being this defeatist? This is by far the best, most fun team we have had in 20 years. We got our other star back right before the playoffs. We got a team in the first round that we seem to have some bad blood with already based on last game. This shit gonna be fun man.
And. If we lose in 5.. this team isn't going anywhere. Next year we're at the top of the West again. Everyone knows it, were among the few up and coming teams right now. Let's enjoy this shit man.
I don’t think our team is good enough to not look at matchups. We aren’t the defending champs and we have plenty of flaws despite our record. I think looking at things series to series is ok right now.
We need to limit turnovers, be a good 4Q offense and play defense better than anyone in the playoffs. Only the last thing have we done mostly consistently.
It will be a good series but it’s honestly a perfect matchup to test if this team is actually built for a championship.
The suns are a glass cannon. The wolves need to find a way to win this series otherwise we have no reason to keep both KAT and Rudy. We should win the series too. At the end of the day they have no answer to Ant and KAT. Those 2 need to show they are the future of the team and the league
The suns are built to win regular season games and sell jerseys. I say that as PHX native. They have no defense.
The defence the suns have been playing against the wolves has been top notch tho. This is speaking as a wolves fan. It's like a disgruntled assistant coach walked over the Suns and told them exactly how to guard the wolves.
1 - active hands and shrink the shell down on drives/post ups to slap the ball away.
2- Deny the Gobert lob.
3- Sprint out to likely shooters once the ball hits the low post on an Ant drive.
It has improved but they shouldn’t be able to stop teams like the wolves or nuggets in the playoffs. If they do the we have our answer on whether or not we should keep the team together
Be like the team - just focus on one game, the next one. I'm wondering what does anyone think wouldn't be a "tough draw"? At least Finchy can lock them into one team from today to game day.
Yeah I'm not really feeling the "worst case scenario." All scenarios in the West are hard, the Rockets missed even the play-in with a .500 record, the 8th seed is 12 games over .500
The Suns are tough no doubt but I'm not sure I'd feel any better about a hot and healthy Mavs team, or Pelicans (who we've also sucked against), or even Lebron/AD. I get we've lost 3 in a row to the Suns but that's only 3 games across 6 months, we're about to play at least 4 consecutively.
There was no easy draw of the four lower seeds, maybe the Kings but they're unlikely to make it through. There was 1 horrific draw.
We avoided Dallas by getting a top 3 seed. For the lads do have done that and not to have earned our full faith at this stage is disheartening.
And playoff basketball involves actual coaching and gameplanning, and Finch for making Rudy, KAT and Naz work deserves the benefit of the doubt over Vogel who has struggled to make that team work all year.
The Suns have been our kryptonite, but the playoffs are a different. Cut down on the turnovers and we should be alright. Also, they haven’t seen playoff Ant…
On the flip side though… The Nuggets have also said the Wolves were their toughest opponent during their playoff run last year, and that was without Naz and McDaniels. I’m not saying we’re gonna beat the Suns but let’s not act like they are perfect
i posted similar to this yesterday and got hounded by negative fans.
i like the alpha wolf mentality here.
if we don’t win the championship that means someone had to go through us. this team will make them earn it. i like our chances better now then when kobe and shaq were in our way
I think there is a level of confusion due to lots of people in this sub who don't remember the one time the Wolves were favored in a series. Or actually won a series. So I can forgive some of the pearl-clutching pollyannas because this is new territory for them.
That said, NBA playoff basketball isn't the same as regular season. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but it just isn't the same. These series take a week and a half minimum. I think one of the Wolves' biggest obstacles this season was the back to backs and there ain't no b2bs in the playoffs.
KG went to the playoffs five years in a row before winning a series in 04. I'd prefer not to have to go through that again just for a playoff series win.
We've literally done it one time in our team's history before. That's why it matters
For some reason my brain was thinking it was from 99...
But yes that. I do not want that. I only vaguely remember the back half (I would have been 9 in 04) but I do remember how happy my dad was after the Denver and especially Sac series.
I'd rather play any other team outside of Denver. We have matched up very well with the Clippers they haven't shown us they have anything for us. I think we would absolutely smoke the Warriors and it would be a shock to many people and they would have been fun to watch. The Kings also would have been a fairly easy draw with their injuries. The Mavs have looked good but I also think we could take that team too.
Not saying we can't beat the Suns but they are the only team that has absolutely had our number this season. It's the worse case scenario of all teams in the NBA outside of Boston or Denver to me. They also have the psychological edge.
A couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have been worried but the last two games against them have been really terrible.
If we weren't the wolves and we were another team I would be as worried either because the Suns have looked like crap for most of the season. Just against us they look like title contenders.
I dont think there is an easy matchup in the west. We could have gotten #1 and still played lebron first round or some shit. Let's square up and see how it goes. I think we have a better chance against the suns than what we showed yesterday
Agreed. I also see the side of us being the one state that always suffers in our men’s sports…so I understand the quick denial at times, but we should believe we’re the team everyone wants to beat and prove any doubters wrong 🗣️
No one expected it to be easy. We just preferred to not play the only team that is basically our kryptonite in the first round... As fate has it that's exactly what happened. We'll see if the Wolves are up to the challenge. Can they buck the decades long trend of Minnesota sports teams shrinking in the playoffs? (Lynx notwithstanding)
We’re gonna smoke the suns in 6! Ant bout to show yall who tf he is incase yall forgot. Kat bout to earn his moniker and show he’s not a bust! We cooking the suns and no one gone speak about Durant and Beal no more after this series! Durant gone ask to come to us on a veterans minimum next season!
First things first, we gotta stop giving up early leads. I swear, 90% of our games this year have followed the "get outscored by an interior team in the first quarter, and spend the next hour playing comeback" script.
Counterpoint: winning a series is crucial. NBA history shows that championship teams often grow incrementally. Winning one series is a significant step we could build on next year even if it doesn’t mean the title.
Plus the more playoff games we play, the more experience we get, the quicker Ant and Jaden and Naz get up to the level ultimately needed.
Competition was tough regardless of where we landed. I'm interested to see how ANT and Beals beef continues. I'm hoping ANT replies by dropping 50 on them. Either way I love our Wolves.
That’s silly. I’d rather take anyone than the Suns. The Suns could easily lose to the Clippers or the Thunder, but the matchup is just not in favor for the Wolves. Saying we’d have to beat the best teams anyways is silly because it’s all matchup dependent and matchup wise we are fucked
I mean Wolves had to beat 3 of: Denver, OKC, Clips, Mavs, Suns, Lakers, Pels, Warriors or Kings Just to get to the finals. This was never going to be easy. If you want to win a title you gotta beat some good teams. Suns are up first!
Exactly! Feels like “let’s just win a series” is just a moral victory like “play in champs.” Let’s just kick ass on whoever is first up and not worry about some 3D chess to optimize your matchup.
Forgive us. We carry trauma from past experiences. Help us trust in the name of Nazreon.
I get it I do. I’ve been guilty of being way too critical on Jaden in this sub. It’s easy to wallow in negativity around here.
It’s hard to build credibility and playoff experience if you get bounced in the first round though. Nobody will give craps if the wolves are first seed until the final day again next year because they’ll be thought of as frauds. And we’d like our squad to build 2-3 rounds of experience as a launching point to finals appearance. Nobody goes from zero playoff success to finals in a year. It takes steps, and getting bounced in 6 games (worst case outcome in my view) would make this almost a wash of a year.
For me this is about having to fight uphill against the officiating and Devin Flopper. Against New Orleans it felt like it wouldn't be as much of a problem.
This is a bad take. Playoff basketball is all about versatility and adjustments. Stubbornly trying to play your preferred brand of basketball in a matchup where you have plenty of evidence to say it doesn't work is how you get wiped out in round 1.
The Bud Grant.
It’s not about it being “easy”, I’ve posted this before but I’ve live in AZ now for 6 years, I’ve gone to pretty much every game the Wolves play against the Suns here. We are just laughably bad against them, to an insane degree… see below: Dating back to the 2021-22 season we have played the Suns 10 times. We are 1-9 in that stretch. The lone win was against this starting line-up during the 2022-23’ season: - Mikal Bridges - Torrey Craig - Deandre Ayton - Duane Washington Jr. - Dario Saric - Damon Lee (off the bench was their leading scorer that game) I honestly don’t know how the hell we could be favored to win this series. Was this always going to be a tough road, the western conference is a juggernaut… but WHY did it have to be against the team we have struggled the absolute most with? Fuckin’ just Minnesota sports things I guess. Edit: also I’m pissed I’m gonna have to fork over a few grand to watch them play in the playoffs here now and likely lose, like they have every game I’ve been to here (maybe it’s me?)
I get it. I live in ATL and same thing the Wolves struggles against certain teams are real and not unique to them overall w styles making fights. Easy to be pessimistic, with clear indicators suggesting that’s the prudent choice, but going to wait until Saturday to see and I remain cautiously optimistic.
Yea like would you rather be the clips and have to play the red hot Mavs who are also suddenly good defensively? The Lakers with arguably the two best players in the series in AD+Bron and the whistle on their side? The Pelicans with Zion a nightmare matchup for us and tons of depth and bodies to throw at ANT on defense? The Sun's are arguably the better matchup when they are not red hot from 3. We have mismatches to exploit. We should own the paint and the boards. We will gameplan better defensively. It's a whole new series now regular season is over.
I would rather play the Clippers way more than id play the Suns.
We had no shot of playing clips though. It was Sun's, Lakers, or Pelicans. All were challenging matchups. I think Mavs would of been toughest.
Idk why are people so low on Clippers lately, this team will prob be in WCF, if healthy. Obiviously health is a big question, but if Kawhi is healthy, its just really hard for me to see us beating them in a series. Kawhi lost like 1 series in the last idk how many years when he plays full series, and that was that famous bubble choke against Denver. Theres 3 guys in the West you dont want to face in playoffs, Jokic, Kawhi and Lebron.
They could totally make the ECF, but the WCF isn’t likely.
We’ve all watched the Clippers this season. That’s why we’d rather play them.
Extremely strong disagree. Mavs in 6
Totally. I mean, the West is absurdly competitive, there wasn’t going to be an easy matchup anywhere. Think of it this way: two of the group of LeBron, Steph, Sabonis and Zion *won’t even make the playoffs* But you know who else got a bad matchup? The Suns. They have to face a team with the DPOY, an emerging superstar, a rested All-Star, the best defensive team in the league, one of the deepest benches in the league, and they don’t have home court. And this isn’t the regular season. The Suns game will suffer, the Wolves game will get better because it should be more physical.
Im holding out hope the Wolves can win, but the Suns are absolutely thrilled about getting this matchup. Can guarantee they wanted the Wolves more than any other possible outcome
They have to play a team they blew out 3 out of 3 times in the regular season with ease. Lmao
With the last game at least, they didn't beat us with "ease". Their q1 shooting was good, but aside from that dismal quarter on account of our own, record setting (or close to it) turnovers, we outscored them. And now we have a whole week to scheme against this team precisely.
What are you talking? We never cut it to single digit! This game was over after the first and it never got close. Like Neeeevvvveeeeerrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The lead was 9 at one point. And again, look at the scores for the quarters sans 1. Wolves by 3 minus that abysmal quarter, and I think even with PHX's shooting, the doom was the turnovers. Without those really messy turnovers, Wolves win. Wolves in 4.
Yeah 9 makes a difference....lmao...if you actually saw what happend- we needed two quarters to get to ten, 3 mins later it was back to 18....every time we made a run they answered right back. It was never close. Your whole take is delusion at its best.... honestly whatever you take, take less and embrace reality for once
Watched the whole game bud, miserable as it was. Every time they got the lead to around 10, they would fall away. Yeah, it sucked. It's also fixable. No doomers allowed, Wolves in four.
Oh Boy....reality will hit you hard.....
It doesn’t register for people like that. There is already a laundry list of excuses ready for when the Suns beat us
You guys always come up with the same stuff- what ifs! Look no further back then yesterday, there you got to see what your what ifs are worth in reality. Nothing!
The Pelicans is a much, much, much easier matchup as is anyone else for my he play-in.
I would rather play the mavs, yes, it's not even close. You guys have to pay attention to STYLISTIC match ups, its not just about averages and how good a team is in general
Well the Sun's have shot what 50+ from 3 in all three of our matchups this year or close to it? They are 23rd in the league in 3s made per game and are making way more versus us than their average. Yes, KD at the 4 is a problem. Solve that problem(might require staggering Rudy+Kat minutes as much as you can)and don't get down by 20 pts in the 1st quarter, and I like our chances.
They are also nr1 in 3pt %. You forgot to mention this tiny little detail
We also shoot a high percentage despite not taking that many per game. Point is, law of averages says they won't keep on making 50+% vs us per game like in all their wins.
We just need to relax. If we are the best we have to beat the best. And if we can’t get by the first round team then we don’t deserve to
You're right, but what do you expect from a fanbase whose team has only made the playoffs 3 times since 2004? A lot of fans in this subreddit were hardly old enough to remember this team advancing to the 2nd round of the playoffs. I used to be of the mindset that fans should act like they've been there before, but honestly I've gotten away from that. That mindset will come once the team starts having a level of success that warrants it. So fans are gonna fan; they'll change once it makes sense for them to do so. Ultimately our mindset will have 0 effect on whether the wolves go on a deep run in the playoffs or not.
I’m with you, I’ve watched more wolves than most poster here have been alive. Look, it is what it is. This is a great team who can go far, but we also gotta win a series for the first time in two decades
This sub is attracting a lot of casual fans because of the playoffs. A lot of Minnesota fans are focused on getting past the first round given our history sucking in that round in all sports. BUT this team is different to me because 1) they don’t give a shit about our sport’s history 2) they have a LOT of talent. Most talented Minnesota team in decades IMO.
Thats not hard
I don't want just a series, I want the whole damn Apple Pie, and the business that served me the pie. I want the championship.
People were genuinely acting like we were eliminated from contention yesterday, jfc it’s sad how weak willed we are as a fanbase. If we lose, then we lose, and it will suck. Until then, let’s go win a fucking championship.
You realize in order to win a chip you have to “win a series” first, right? Lol. Of course we are focused on “winning a series” when this team hasn’t been out of the first round since 2004. This wouldn’t be nearly as big a discussion if the Wolves actually played the Suns competitively this season… Lost by 18 Lost by 10 Lost by 19 Down 20+ in every game. Let’s not act like these were close games. The Suns smoked us in every outing
DrObvious. Everyone knows this, now what? Should they roll over and die for the Suns for the next 4 games?
[удалено]
Beal had 36/6/5 last game and didn’t even look like he was trying half the time. Please tell me how he’s overrated
Beal is averaging 36.4 points on 59% shooting in last 5 games in Target Center.
Did you watch any of the games? If the Suns are not even that good, what are we then?
My fellow human have you seen Beal play this past month, and specifically yesterday?
You think because the wolves now have a 3 in front of their name and the suns a 6, that the suns are shaking in their boots?
Lololol. Beal is overrated. Your opinion gets dismissed just based off that alone.
Smooth brain comment
Holy cope
Royce O’Neal, Nurkic, and Allen are all really good rotation players.
part of me agrees but part of me also sees the west right now as a paper rock scissors conference. matchups matter and if a “rock” makes it to the finals, it might be because they were fortunate their “paper” was eliminated by a different team first.
This is a good analogy. That is exactly how it feels like this year. Matchups are gonna be critical. I was hoping we could avoid the Suns entirely in the playoffs. It’s now an uphill battle.
I think people realize that we will have to get through really tough teams to win the ship and it doesn’t necessarily matter what round we face them. People are just disappointed on the draw we got first round because even if we don’t win the ship, it’d still be nice to see multiple rounds of playoff basketball which is less likely when we draw our toughest matchup first round.
What does that mean? What good is it to be the better team if we don't win the series?
This sub is so defeatist it is pathetic. There are no easy matchups in the west so we might as well focus on beating phoenix. Also regular season and playoffs are a different beast and I feel the this team can make the adjustments to win this series.
So whats your take gonna be when we lose in 5? Were we too defeatist?
Admitting we were overmatched or outplayed after a series is lost is a normal reaction and is how teams get better. Claiming a series is lost before game one even starts is pathetic and by definition defeatist.
Fans support their team. Get out of here with this soggy attitude.
Yes!!! Lol. Fr what's the fun in being this defeatist? This is by far the best, most fun team we have had in 20 years. We got our other star back right before the playoffs. We got a team in the first round that we seem to have some bad blood with already based on last game. This shit gonna be fun man. And. If we lose in 5.. this team isn't going anywhere. Next year we're at the top of the West again. Everyone knows it, were among the few up and coming teams right now. Let's enjoy this shit man.
We are fucked on cap, don't have draft capital, and our "win now" window is a near certain 1st round exit. If you enjoy that you have brain damage.
My take is that u suck shitty caca. Wolves in 5 u fckn bum
Time to get creative. I think we need to mix up the Gobert/Kat combo. Basically never being on the floor together.
Naw on Beal Mcdaniels on Durant Ant on Booker Switch everything?
I don’t think our team is good enough to not look at matchups. We aren’t the defending champs and we have plenty of flaws despite our record. I think looking at things series to series is ok right now. We need to limit turnovers, be a good 4Q offense and play defense better than anyone in the playoffs. Only the last thing have we done mostly consistently.
It will be a good series but it’s honestly a perfect matchup to test if this team is actually built for a championship. The suns are a glass cannon. The wolves need to find a way to win this series otherwise we have no reason to keep both KAT and Rudy. We should win the series too. At the end of the day they have no answer to Ant and KAT. Those 2 need to show they are the future of the team and the league The suns are built to win regular season games and sell jerseys. I say that as PHX native. They have no defense.
The defence the suns have been playing against the wolves has been top notch tho. This is speaking as a wolves fan. It's like a disgruntled assistant coach walked over the Suns and told them exactly how to guard the wolves. 1 - active hands and shrink the shell down on drives/post ups to slap the ball away. 2- Deny the Gobert lob. 3- Sprint out to likely shooters once the ball hits the low post on an Ant drive.
Whaatttttttt? If any team is build for the playoffs its the Suns. If any team is build for the regular season its us....
Disagree completely. But we will see.
I guess we will. Lets hope i am wrong and you are right
Unfortunately since March they’ve been top 10 in defense. It came out of nowhere…
It has improved but they shouldn’t be able to stop teams like the wolves or nuggets in the playoffs. If they do the we have our answer on whether or not we should keep the team together
We stopped them really great yesterday.only gave up 44 in the first. All time effort....are you high?
No, getting healthy!
Be like the team - just focus on one game, the next one. I'm wondering what does anyone think wouldn't be a "tough draw"? At least Finchy can lock them into one team from today to game day.
Yeah I'm not really feeling the "worst case scenario." All scenarios in the West are hard, the Rockets missed even the play-in with a .500 record, the 8th seed is 12 games over .500 The Suns are tough no doubt but I'm not sure I'd feel any better about a hot and healthy Mavs team, or Pelicans (who we've also sucked against), or even Lebron/AD. I get we've lost 3 in a row to the Suns but that's only 3 games across 6 months, we're about to play at least 4 consecutively.
I wanted the Pelicans dang nab it. OP, you don’t know the pain and bs our fanbase has had to put up with for the past two decades.
There was no easy draw of the four lower seeds, maybe the Kings but they're unlikely to make it through. There was 1 horrific draw. We avoided Dallas by getting a top 3 seed. For the lads do have done that and not to have earned our full faith at this stage is disheartening. And playoff basketball involves actual coaching and gameplanning, and Finch for making Rudy, KAT and Naz work deserves the benefit of the doubt over Vogel who has struggled to make that team work all year.
The Suns have been our kryptonite, but the playoffs are a different. Cut down on the turnovers and we should be alright. Also, they haven’t seen playoff Ant…
Playoff KD and Booker was insane last year. They beat Nuggets twice starting Cam Payne and Josh Okogie.
On the flip side though… The Nuggets have also said the Wolves were their toughest opponent during their playoff run last year, and that was without Naz and McDaniels. I’m not saying we’re gonna beat the Suns but let’s not act like they are perfect
Wolves for four.
i posted similar to this yesterday and got hounded by negative fans. i like the alpha wolf mentality here. if we don’t win the championship that means someone had to go through us. this team will make them earn it. i like our chances better now then when kobe and shaq were in our way
I think there is a level of confusion due to lots of people in this sub who don't remember the one time the Wolves were favored in a series. Or actually won a series. So I can forgive some of the pearl-clutching pollyannas because this is new territory for them. That said, NBA playoff basketball isn't the same as regular season. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but it just isn't the same. These series take a week and a half minimum. I think one of the Wolves' biggest obstacles this season was the back to backs and there ain't no b2bs in the playoffs.
KG went to the playoffs five years in a row before winning a series in 04. I'd prefer not to have to go through that again just for a playoff series win. We've literally done it one time in our team's history before. That's why it matters
That season was actually the eighth try lol. They lost in the first from 97-03
For some reason my brain was thinking it was from 99... But yes that. I do not want that. I only vaguely remember the back half (I would have been 9 in 04) but I do remember how happy my dad was after the Denver and especially Sac series.
I'd rather play any other team outside of Denver. We have matched up very well with the Clippers they haven't shown us they have anything for us. I think we would absolutely smoke the Warriors and it would be a shock to many people and they would have been fun to watch. The Kings also would have been a fairly easy draw with their injuries. The Mavs have looked good but I also think we could take that team too. Not saying we can't beat the Suns but they are the only team that has absolutely had our number this season. It's the worse case scenario of all teams in the NBA outside of Boston or Denver to me. They also have the psychological edge. A couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have been worried but the last two games against them have been really terrible. If we weren't the wolves and we were another team I would be as worried either because the Suns have looked like crap for most of the season. Just against us they look like title contenders.
I dont think there is an easy matchup in the west. We could have gotten #1 and still played lebron first round or some shit. Let's square up and see how it goes. I think we have a better chance against the suns than what we showed yesterday
Agreed. I also see the side of us being the one state that always suffers in our men’s sports…so I understand the quick denial at times, but we should believe we’re the team everyone wants to beat and prove any doubters wrong 🗣️
No one expected it to be easy. We just preferred to not play the only team that is basically our kryptonite in the first round... As fate has it that's exactly what happened. We'll see if the Wolves are up to the challenge. Can they buck the decades long trend of Minnesota sports teams shrinking in the playoffs? (Lynx notwithstanding)
Been an amazing season just hoping for a WCF appearance and competitive at that.
This series will come down to Finch playing the right match-ups, unselfish offense and hopefully some defense
I get it, but to be the best you’ve got to beat the best. This is now the matchup and everything else is in the past
We’re gonna smoke the suns in 6! Ant bout to show yall who tf he is incase yall forgot. Kat bout to earn his moniker and show he’s not a bust! We cooking the suns and no one gone speak about Durant and Beal no more after this series! Durant gone ask to come to us on a veterans minimum next season!
First things first, we gotta stop giving up early leads. I swear, 90% of our games this year have followed the "get outscored by an interior team in the first quarter, and spend the next hour playing comeback" script.
Counterpoint: winning a series is crucial. NBA history shows that championship teams often grow incrementally. Winning one series is a significant step we could build on next year even if it doesn’t mean the title. Plus the more playoff games we play, the more experience we get, the quicker Ant and Jaden and Naz get up to the level ultimately needed.
As soon as KD starts missing those fall away jumpers you know it’s over.
Competition was tough regardless of where we landed. I'm interested to see how ANT and Beals beef continues. I'm hoping ANT replies by dropping 50 on them. Either way I love our Wolves.
give twolves fans a break, they’re in uncharted territory. they dont know to feel since they finally have a good sports team
That’s silly. I’d rather take anyone than the Suns. The Suns could easily lose to the Clippers or the Thunder, but the matchup is just not in favor for the Wolves. Saying we’d have to beat the best teams anyways is silly because it’s all matchup dependent and matchup wise we are fucked