***Official Suns @ Timberwolves Game 1 PGDT 20 Apr Official***

[TheLokNesMonster]

Boom!

5pts in 3 minutes

Wish they’d give him more minutes

Me too. He was on pace for a 50 point night!

[LwnmwrMan222]

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
Really glad the rest of the league is going to see Nickeil Alexander-Walker play this postseason. But also excited more people will get to hear him speak. He’s one of the most thoughtful in his answers of any player I’ve covered. It’s a podium game for NAW. I’d recommend checking it out.

His post game on the stream was refreshing compared to the usual cliche laden interview.

[weimy froob]

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
Really glad the rest of the league is going to see Nickeil Alexander-Walker play this postseason. But also excited more people will get to hear him speak. He’s one of the most thoughtful in his answers of any player I’ve covered. It’s a podium game for NAW. I’d recommend checking it out.

His post game on the stream was refreshing compared to the usual cliche laden interview.

yes. i've heard him a few times talking with horton after the game. he's very well-spoken. he was again today.

[Moses Scurry]

I haven't read everything on here the past week, but just saw this....thanks Brad!

But it was a message from Suns star Bradley Beal before the playoffs even began that Edwards said helped fuel the Wolves as per NBA reporter Travis Singleton.

“We just wanted to show that we was the more desperate team tonight. Nothing about No. 1 or No. 2, we’re No. 3. These guys came in here and whooped us on our home court the last game of the season,” Edwards said. “Brad Beal said he told our coach that he don’t think we play hard enough, and he was right. [Chris] Finch didn’t like that, he came in the next day was like, ‘we got guys on other teams telling me that y’all don’t play hard enough for me,’ and he was totally right. We were just out there running around letting them do what they wanted to do.”

[EmeraldAxe]

I haven't read everything on here the past week, but just saw this....thanks Brad!

But it was a message from Suns star Bradley Beal before the playoffs even began that Edwards said helped fuel the Wolves as per NBA reporter Travis Singleton.

“We just wanted to show that we was the more desperate team tonight. Nothing about No. 1 or No. 2, we’re No. 3. These guys came in here and whooped us on our home court the last game of the season,” Edwards said. “Brad Beal said he told our coach that he don’t think we play hard enough, and he was right. [Chris] Finch didn’t like that, he came in the next day was like, ‘we got guys on other teams telling me that y’all don’t play hard enough for me,’ and he was totally right. We were just out there running around letting them do what they wanted to do.”

So maybe we should fire finch and hire Bradley Beal. He was able to get the wolves to play as intense as they always should with just a few sentences.

[PanicWolf]

That was pretty fun.

[aztimberwolves]

110-84 suns

Helluva prediction. Only 51 points off and the other team winni g. lol

[Voltron]

110-84 suns

[aztimberwolves]

5pts in 3 minutes

Wish they’d give him more minutes

Me too. He was on pace for a 50 point night!

But but he’s such a black hole!!!! 7 of 10 shooting and 2 for 2 today. He should be learning to restrain himself and learn how to set up Wendell Moore and Josh Minott for buckets! the nerve of that guy!!!!!

[witljon]

What’s the story with Grayson Allen and Kyle Anderson’s injuries?
Are they going to miss some time or be back next game?

[A$$MAN]

I wonder how Greyson Allen's ankle is looking?

I hope that fucker's foot fell completely off. Can't stand that dirty asshole.

[A$$MAN]

I wonder how Greyson Allen's ankle is looking?

I hope it fucking disintegrated.

[A$$MAN]

Our the Wolves mature enough to put this win out of their mind asap and be 100% focused on coming out with an even better effort Tuesday night? We know the Suns will be ultra motivated to tie the series up and will come out guns a blazin. I'm skeptical yet hopeful there will not be a let down...

This is key. Need to come out focused again and beat them up early.

[aztimberwolves]

Our the Wolves mature enough to put this win out of their mind asap and be 100% focused on coming out with an even better effort Tuesday night? We know the Suns will be ultra motivated to tie the series up and will come out guns a blazin. I'm skeptical yet hopeful there will not be a let down...

This is key. Need to come out focused again and beat them up early.

I hope Grayson is ok. He’s one of our best player on the court.

He’s completely worthless in the postseason. Reason why Milwaukee benched him last year

[A$$MAN]

Great game!

What I liked most is even though the refs tried their best to fuck us, we just kept grinding, kept our cool, and blew them away…

The Suns have to be wondering how they can possibly beat us when we play like that.

There were defiantly some bad calls, but I thought in general the way they called the game played to our advantage. They let us bang a lot.

i saw a lot of contact when there were no whistles. i think that definitely favors the wolves. gives players like jaden a couple of extra fouls that he probably doesn't get in the regular season.

Absolutely. If the refs allow physical basketball we win this series convincingly.

[twolves31]

What’s the story with Grayson Allen and Kyle Anderson’s injuries?
Are they going to miss some time or be back next game?

[SneakerReporter] Just ran into Kyle Anderson leaving Target Center and asked if he’s good. He said “I’m good I should be ready Game 2”. So that sounds encouraging for all Wolves fans worried about Slo-Mo

[YBBR]

When Anderson comes back, is he the odd man out, or is Morris? No way Finch does a 9 man rotation, right?

Probably not for most of it. It'll probably be mainly 8 guys with a 9th guy mixed in. Didn't Morris come into the game before Slomo went down to? Finch needs to find that 8th guy though right? It might be different from night to night. We all know he can rely on NAW and Naz. You need 1 of Slomo, Monte, and Jmac to give you the goods. Or it would at least help a lot.

Monte has been a bit of a dissapointment. He's not terrible, but I was hoping for a little more. Even coming off his injury. I'd like to see Jmac get some run in game 2 to see if he can keep up his play with how he closed out the season. Same with Kyle he definitely bounced back from a pretty terrible first half, to looking more like the utility knife version of Slomo.

[Style]

I don't think we'll be able to shut down all three of their Big 3. but if we can make sure only one of them goes off, we can beat these guys. Durant with 31 today - he's got a playoff average of 29.4 in over 160 playoff games. he's lethal and likely will continue to be. but Booker and Beal had a pedestrian 18 and 15. This should be the template.

Durant is the one with the mismatch against Towns or Gobert. We have good matches for Booker and Beal with Edwards and Jaden (and NAW).

Let Durant average 30. Keep the three of them under 70 combined and we should win the series.

Booker was noticeably frustrated all game. A lot of whining. Keeping Jaden on him makes sense. Ant on Beal. “Let” Durant get his in the midrange.

Played out perfectly game one. Not too many standing alone in the gym 3s for PHX.

[Style]

When Anderson comes back, is he the odd man out, or is Morris? No way Finch does a 9 man rotation, right?

Probably not for most of it. It'll probably be mainly 8 guys with a 9th guy mixed in. Didn't Morris come into the game before Slomo went down to? Finch needs to find that 8th guy though right? It might be different from night to night. We all know he can rely on NAW and Naz. You need 1 of Slomo, Monte, and Jmac to give you the goods. Or it would at least help a lot.

Monte has been a bit of a dissapointment. He's not terrible, but I was hoping for a little more. Even coming off his injury. I'd like to see Jmac get some run in game 2 to see if he can keep up his play with how he closed out the season. Same with Kyle he definitely bounced back from a pretty terrible first half, to looking more like the utility knife version of Slomo.

I’d like to see that guy be Morris this series. The trapping they did on Ant in the second half led to some sloppy possessions. Nothing overly terrible, but something to clean up going into next game. I think Morris’ skillset matches nicely with a team trapping Ant.

[weimy froob]

After being thoroughly dismantled in three regular-season games by Phoenix, the Timberwolves returned the favor when it mattered most. Minnesota sent a major message to open the first-round NBA playoff series en route to a 120-95 Game 1 victory Saturday at Target Center.

Suddenly, the series looks a lot more like advantage Wolves than the tossup it was originally viewed to be. Game 2 of the series is Tuesday in Minneapolis.

What a shift in feelings from a week prior, when the Suns nuked Minnesota on the same floor in the regular-season finale, forcing the Wolves into a first-round date with one of the hotter teams in the NBA — no pun intended.

A week ago, the Timberwolves didn’t seem to have an answer for the Suns’ plethora of perimeter scorers. Conversations centered on ways in which Minnesota could go smaller to better match up with Phoenix.

But that was far from the case Saturday. Size was very much the Timberwolves’ ally. Center Rudy Gobert grabbed 16 rebounds on a day where the Wolves outrebounded Phoenix 52-28 and scored 52 points in the paint to the Suns’ 34.

The real solution to Minnesota’s issues was simple — play harder.

[weimy froob]

More specifically, play like itself.

“Certainly what happened with things last week and previous matchups, we needed to take our game to another level,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We hadn’t been doing that. We’ve been playing some good basketball, at times great basketball — connected, we played hard, played for each other — but we haven’t been playing desperate basketball with a chip on our shoulder, which is what we did early in the season when we tried to establish ourself. We did a good job of coming out here hungry with something to prove.”

They were a pack of desperate Wolves. And the Suns were their prey.

Kevin Durant got his — scoring 31 points on 11 for 17 shooting on a night where he was guarded by Karl-Anthony Towns. But every other Phoenix player struggled to even generate looks at the rim.

Devin Booker was 5 for 16. Brad Beal attempted just 10 shots. Grayson Allen was 0 for 3 from the field. Because Minnesota defended every inch of the floor for all 48 minutes. The No. 1 defense in the NBA all season came out and put on a show on national television.

According to Anthony Edwards, Beal commented to Finch after last Sunday’s game that the Wolves didn’t play hard enough.

“And he was totally right. Like we was out just running around, letting them do what they wanted to do, man,” Edwards said. “That’s a great team, man. All three of those guys, they’re great players, man. It’s going to be hard to beat these guys. We’ve got to bring it every night.”

That’s what Minnesota can truly hang its hat on. And, when the Wolves play like that — as they showed again Saturday — they’re very, very difficult to beat, particularly in a best-of-seven series. Between Gobert, Edwards, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaden McDaniels, there’s too much defensive talent on the floor to not get stops when the motors are revving on high.

“Our focus and our urgency were obviously at an all-time high. I love how we respected the game plan for 48 minutes, from the first to the last,” Gobert said. “That’s who we are. We’ve got to find that desperation every night now. Whether we’re up in the series, down in the series. Whatever happens, every minute, no matter who’s on the floor, we’ve got to play with that urgency. When we do, it’s fun, and we’ve got no regrets at the end.

That alone helped power Minnesota to 10-point halftime lead. And then the Anthony Edwards show came to life.

The 22-year-old all-star guard has always been a primetime performer who has shined in the playoffs. Saturday was no different. Phoenix had trimmed Minnesota’s advantage to four midway through the third quarter when Edwards delivered one of his patented third-quarter explosions.

This time, he scored 18 in the quarter with a number of big-time hits. After one of the biggest ones at the end of the third, Edwards started talking all kinds of smack to Durant, who he has noted on numerous occasions has always been his favorite NBA player.

Edwards finished with 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

All Durant could do was smile and laugh.

When Minnesota plays like this, there aren’t many other answers to be found.

“It’s been who we are all year,” Mike Conley said. “For us, it’s not having to work to recreate it and think we’re a team that is built off of guys who are blue collar, work hard, have a chip on their shoulder. We understand that’s who we are, and we have to go do that in Game 2.”

[Beef Supreme]

[LwnmwrMan222]

I didn't see the game, but the way Horton described the elbow to Conley's face, not being any foul, let alone should have been a flagrant 1, while 4-5 games ago when Naz gets an F2 for not much more than incidental contact....

[twolves31]

When Anderson comes back, is he the odd man out, or is Morris? No way Finch does a 9 man rotation, right?

Probably not for most of it. It'll probably be mainly 8 guys with a 9th guy mixed in. Didn't Morris come into the game before Slomo went down to? Finch needs to find that 8th guy though right? It might be different from night to night. We all know he can rely on NAW and Naz. You need 1 of Slomo, Monte, and Jmac to give you the goods. Or it would at least help a lot.

Monte has been a bit of a dissapointment. He's not terrible, but I was hoping for a little more. Even coming off his injury. I'd like to see Jmac get some run in game 2 to see if he can keep up his play with how he closed out the season. Same with Kyle he definitely bounced back from a pretty terrible first half, to looking more like the utility knife version of Slomo.

I’d like to see that guy be Morris this series. The trapping they did on Ant in the second half led to some sloppy possessions. Nothing overly terrible, but something to clean up going into next game. I think Morris’ skillset matches nicely with a team trapping Ant.

With Anderson only playing 5 minutes due to injury Morris only played 10 minutes and that included 3 minutes of garbage time. I could see Finch picking one or the other Morris or JMac, and possibly switching which one he uses on a game by game basis depending on what we need in that moment. Either way the role for that 9th player is only about 5-8 minutes per game in the playoffs.

[Moses Scurry]

Game two is when we'll see how serious these young Wolves players are. Slide back to bad habits and coast or try and step on their throat and say, "This is how this series is going to go, get used to it KD and Co."

OKC has a walk in the park to the WCF's compared to our gauntlet. That's were me as a coach would look smugly at my players and say, "That's why that December game against the Hornets that we lost matters morons!"

[SHAFA]

That last offensive foul on Towns was so ridiculously, egregiously bad.

[BBG]

KATs whistle is the product of years of crying and yelling at the refs. It's a real thing.

To his credit, he crys far less than he used too.

[OliverMiller]

If the defense is going to translate like that to the postseason, we can absolutely make a run to the finals.

[twolves31]

KATs whistle is the product of years of crying and yelling at the refs. It's a real thing.

To his credit, he crys far less than he used too.

I think it's more scouting at this point (and Kat doesn't learn not to put himself in harms way), teams are waiting for Kat to hook or get his arms tangled and than flopping as soon as they feel it. I don't know why teams don't do the same for Booker and Shai when they push off and hooks or Jokic and Sabonis when they elbow their way into players.

[Jimi_Thing]

It feels like the refs have this ‘We need to do something or else it’s going to be an absolute route’ approach when they ref the game.

The NBA’s biggest problem is refs that also try to manage/manipulate games to be more competitive than they should be.