Game Day: Wolves (53-23) @ Suns (45-31), Fri 4/5/24

[Cap]

We shot 43% from the field including a 3-13 stinker from Book and won by holding Minnesota to a season low. Are we back?

Devils advocate, were they ever here?

1st quarter of the preseason looked pretty good.

[Superbone]

Decent start.

15-0? I’d say so.

[Superbone]

My games notes:

15-0 start
17-2; 21-4;32-17;39-20;41-23

Busted them early tonight. Suns defense making the Wolves look like a mid level team at best tonight. Man, that Alexander Walker. Hit his first three 3s. Threes keeping the Wolves in it. But at least they have been contested pretty well. Tough Minnesota 3 at the half. Suns up 57-41. 41! Would have been 38 if it wasn’t for that tough 3.

Suns defensive scheme on Edwards has been masterful. 77-61 to start the fourth. Let’s see if they can play them even or better. Brutal lineup of Beal, Gordon, O’Neale, Bol, Nurk to start the 4th. Struggling to score. Luckily Minnesota isn’t either. Nurk finally with a big and one. And in comes the cavalry with KD, Book, and Allen with 8 minutes left (which lets you know that Vogel is serious). KD promptly scores. Back to 20 with 6:41 left. Biggest lead 94-72 with 4:02 remaining. It’s scrub time! They did it!

Not that it matters but the Suns scrubs getting shut out. Outscored something like 10-0 for only a 10 point win after being up 20. Scrubs lived up to their name.

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

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[ShelC]

Good win, the Wolves just didn't have the firepower to keep up. We did a good job keying in on Edwards and everyone else was flat for the most part. Might've been our most complete defensive game, rotations were working well and we didn't give up on plays. The 3rd qtr was ugly offensively where we couldn't get in any rhythm and went 8 minutes without a FG - Bad shots, ISO, TOs. The Wolves cut the lead to about 12 but we held them off by getting to the line. Book had 13 assists but 7 TOs, I thought Nurk was our best player but KD also had a good night shooting the ball and Beal was 6-9 but did most of that in the 1st qtr. Allen with a good all around game, Royce was invisible and I thought Eubanks gave some good minutes. Only 7 guys in the rotation last night, a lot of heavy lifting from the starters but glad they got to sit the last few minutes.

[LazarusLong]

Minnesota was not impressive.
Even when the Suns had a string of TOs in the third, the Wolves couldn't capitalize.
Suns defense was as good as I've seen for awhile.

The bench illustrated why it's called "garbage time."
Played like a bunch of high school second-stringers.
Azubuike looked lost out there. Little and Okogie ... Oof ...

[Mori Chu]

I felt like Minny lost this game as much as we won it. Their defense on many plays was horrible. We'd just waltz right to the hoop for an open layup or dunk, or they'd leave our best 3-point shooters wide open.

It's really great to see this streak of 3 impressive wins in a row vs playoff opponents. But I still see us doing the same old stuff like the sloppy ball-handling, turnovers, lazy defense. I think they're clearly playing better lately, but I don't really see them rounding into shape as a contender.

[LazarusLong]

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The Suns could end up being a first-round playoff opponent for the Wolves, and maybe Phoenix has put some doubt in their minds as to how a potential postseason matchup would look. The Suns join the Pelicans, another potential first-round opponent, as the only teams to defeat the Wolves twice by double digits...

[Split T]

And we’ve only played them twice…we might have some ability to control our matchup as our last game is against Minny.

[TOO]

Minnesota was not impressive.
Even when the Suns had a string of TOs in the third, the Wolves couldn't capitalize.
Suns defense was as good as I've seen for awhile.

The bench illustrated why it's called "garbage time."
Played like a bunch of high school second-stringers.
Azubuike looked lost out there. Little and Okogie ... Oof ...

To be fair it's hard to do anything without consistent minutes, look at Bols growth