1 point narrowly won, 19 points crazy! The Western giants changed their lives against the sky and quietly became the favorites for the championship

The NBA play-offs are all over, and the Lakers, 76ers, Heat and Pelicans have all successfully caught the last train to the playoffs. The 7-8 teams in the East and West all survived, and the 9-10 teams were all eliminated, and the only change was that the Lakers, who were 8th in the West, and the Pelicans, who were 7th in the West, switched places, and the Lakers became the No. 7 seed in the West and the Pelicans became the No. 8 seed in the West. In this way, the 16 playoff teams in the East and West will face off in the first round of 8 groups, as follows: Thunder vs Pelicans, Nuggets vs Lakers, Timberwolves vs Suns, Clippers vs Mavericks, Celtics vs Heat, Knicks vs 76ers, Bucks vs Pacers, Cavaliers vs Magic. Due to the play-off setup, picking playoff opponents is no longer a wise choice. However, there is a team in the league that has changed its fate and quietly selected the "upper sign"!

I'm talking about the Phoenix Suns. This season, the Suns have formed the Big Three of Durant, Booker, and Beal, and embarked on a road to the championship that no one has ever walked before. In the journey of the regular season, this Western giants team has been plagued by injuries and run-ins, and their heavy offensive and light defensive style of play have made them the league's most volatile giant team, with a ceiling as high as the lower limit. Even so, the Suns still achieved a record of 489 wins and 33 losses, and got a playoff ticket as the sixth in the West! For the Suns, such a record and ranking are not worth boasting about, but they are not easy to come by.

Turning back the clock to the end of the regular season, the Suns are hovering in the play-off area, with teams such as the Kings, Pelicans, and Lakers being direct opponents, and what is even more difficult is that the Suns have a brutal schedule at the end, and the opponents also include the Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Clippers, Nuggets, Thunder and other Eastern and Western playoff powerhouses. Fortunately, the Suns withstood the pressure and won a number of beautiful card battles and strong conversations! Among them, against the Pelicans on April 2, Booker exploded with 52+ points9 assists, leading the team to a 13-point victory; On April 13, playing the Kings, KD Booker Beal's Big Three combined scored 69 points, and the Suns completed a 16-point reversal and narrowly won by 1 point; On April 11, they played the Clippers, and the Clippers all hung up the exemption card, and the Suns won a 16-point victory; In the final game of the regular season, the Timberwolves, Beal and Booker combined to score 59 points, and the Suns beat their opponents by 19 points!

After this wave of operations, the Suns not only beat the Pelicans and other teams to successfully go ashore and go straight to the playoffs, but also firmly controlled their own destiny, pushing the Timberwolves to the third place in the West and becoming a first-round opponent! For the Suns, this is undoubtedly a godsend opponent, and the following is a good opportunity! I say this by no means the pursuit of the Suns, nor is it a contempt for the Timberwolves, but because of the heaven and earth, the Suns are the nemesis of the Timberwolves! In the regular season this season, the Suns played against the Timberwolves three times, and the Suns killed the Timberwolves three times! Among them, on November 16, the Timberwolves were absent, KD Booker scored 62 points, and the Suns beat the opponent by 18 points; on April 6, the Timberwolves only scored 87 points to set a new season low, and the Suns won by 10 points; the other was the final game, the Suns beat the Timberwolves by 19 points!

The Timberwolves rank first in the league in defensive efficiency (108.4) and points conceded per game (106.5), and the tall and rich forward resources are terrifying, but they just can't do anything about the Suns for two reasons! First, the Timberwolves' defense relies on scrambling and system, which can efficiently disrupt the opponent's passing, while the Suns don't even have a proper organizational guard, Durant, Booker, Beal is the league's top stand-up heads-up master, they can punish the Timberwolves' defense in the simplest offensive way;Second, the Timberwolves themselves are not good at positional warfare, Huazi's hard solution ability is insufficient, Towns likes to float on the outside, Gobert eats bread and butter all year round and is difficult to create a threat, their collapse often happens in an instant, a thousand miles, and no one can turn the tide at the critical moment!

If the Suns can beat the Timberwolves in the next round, they will most likely meet the defending champion Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. For the Lakers, maybe the Nuggets are their nemesis, but for the Suns, they can also be regarded as the Nuggets' nemesis! In the playoffs last season, the Booker KD brothers won two games against the Nuggets, although they were still honored, which is one of the reasons why they are desperate to introduce Beal and partner KD Booker, they believe that only by letting go can they have a chance to beat the Nuggets! In the regular season this season, the Suns and the Nuggets have played each other 3 times, the Suns have 2 wins and 1 loss, and the loss is led by KD alone, and the Suns' indiscriminate projection play is particularly good in front of the Nuggets! It is precisely because of this that the Suns have quietly become the favorites for the championship! I look forward to the KD Booker Beale Big Three staying healthy, and I also hope that the defending champion Nuggets will not take it lightly! Fans and friends, what do you think about this? Come and leave me a comment to discuss.