The community has spoken. Suns in 6 is where they’ve landed.
We’ve entered the 11th hour. The pending First Round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves will be the first time that the two teams have ever met in a postseason series. It has been one season since the Phoenix Suns have won a series. It’s been since 2004 for the Wolves.
We’ve looked at the matchups, we’ve talked about the history, we’ve identified the X-factors, we’ve given our takes and provided our analysis. What happens now is game time. What happens now goes into the history books.
The playoffs are a unique experience and one that carries with it stress and unbridled joy. Possession to possession, game to game, the ups and downs are felt instantaneously. If a possession occurs and does not work out, you feel it will never work again. Conversely, when you run a certain set and it is successful, you feel like it will never fail. A loss ruins the next two days. A win has you flying high.
The NBA playoffs are one of adjustments and the hope is the Suns have the capacity to analyze and institute those adjustments. We are coming off of an era of Phoenix Suns in which the adjustments were made, but perhaps just a little too late.
Frank Vogel has a championship pedigree, winning with LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the 2020 Orlando Bubble. Will that experience be enough to overcome the third-seeded Timberwolves and the best defense in the league?
The results of our most recent Suns Reacts Poll show differing levels of confidence in what Phoenix can accomplish.
The overall belief is that the Suns will win the series. It appears that the majority of our community believes it will be in six games.
That is where I landed as well, although I do not know why I possess such confidence. Phoenix has been Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde throughout the regular season. I shouldn’t believe that this trend will magically disappear. But I am hopeful that it will.
The Suns enter the series surely as the underdog, as they do not have a home-court advantage. Minnesota was 30-11 at the Target Center this season. If this is forced to a Game 7, that is where the final game will be played. No matter the matchup this postseason, the Suns will not have a Game 7 at home. Perhaps that is why winning a title as the sixth seed is such a rare occurrence.
What does the rest of the world think?
Who wins?
#3 Timberwolves or #6 Suns?
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) April 19, 2024