The Phoenix Suns are on the road at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. This is the first game of a best of seven series in the Western Conference playoffs. This game features the 6th seeded Suns, who went 49-33 on the season. The Suns won their final three games to get to the sixth seed. Phoenix beat Minnesota on the road on Sunday by 19.
For the Timberwolves, they went 56-26 on the season. Most of the season, Minnesota was in a battle with Denver and Oklahoma City for the top spot in the West. The Timberwolves are unfamiliar with this spot in the postseason, which brings up many questions about how this series will go.
Minnesota is -1.5 at home over Phoenix.
Big Threats for Suns
Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are a duo that will be tough for any team in the postseason to slow down. Now it is their time to shine as the postseason begins. Booker and Durant both are scoring 27.1 points per game. Bradley Beal has been third on the team. It is his first season with the Suns, and he scored 18.2 per game.
The Suns are also getting 13.5 points from Grayson Allen, and Eric Gordon is fifth with 11 per game. Jusuf Nurkic has been a big plus for the SUns with 11 points and 11 rebounds per game. The Suns as a team are scoring 116.2 points per game. That ranks 10th in the league. The Suns are 5th in field goal percentage, making over 49% of their shots.
Phoenix finished strong with wins at the Clippers, Kings and Timberwolves. In those three games, the Suns averaged 119 points per game, and only allowed 107. Phoenix also beat Minnesota on April 5th at home.
Upstart Timberwolves
Are the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of schedule? Not many projected this squad to be one of the best teams in the Western Conference. Minnesota did this with Karl Anthony Towns missing 20 games on the season. He has been back for the last two games, but played fewer minutes.
The big story for Minnesota has been the dominance of Anthony Edwards. He played in 79 games, and scored just under 26 points per game. Edwards dished out 5.1 assists and grabbed 5.4 rebounds per game.
Rudy Gobert has been strong for Minnesota as well. Gobert is scoring 14 points and ripping down just shy of 13 rebounds. The Timberwolves, as a team, are scoring 113 points per game. Minnesota has been deadly from downtown, as they have the third best three point percentage in the league, at 38.7%.
Suns Grab Game One Win
This is going to be a great series. This is not a great matchup for the young Timberwolves. Minnesota is really good defensively, but when push comes to shove in the postseason, you need dudes that can score. The Suns have a few of them.
The Suns are going to win Game 1 on the road. Our final bet for this game is the Phoenix Suns at +105 on the moneyline over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Enjoy the game, and best of luck!
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