At 3:30 a.m. Beijing time on April 21, the NBA playoff matchup was in full swing, and the Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the Phoenix Suns. The G1 battle between the two sides is on the verge of breaking out, with the Suns ranking 6th in the West with a 49-33 record and the Timberwolves ranking 3rd in the West with a 56-26 record. As one of the super dark horses in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves have been in the top three in the West since the middle of the regular season, their defense is quite strong, defensive efficiency, limiting the opponent's shooting percentage, and ranking first in the league in points conceded per game. Among the Timberwolves role players, there are also many large-size forward 3D players who can shoot and defend.
For the Suns, their attributes are the opposite of the Timberwolves, as an offensive team, the three core of the team, Booker, Durant and Beal, are all offensive players. In the playoffs last year, Durant and Booker were in very good shape, but the depth of the Suns lineup was a little worse, and this season's Suns team also enhanced the depth of the lineup, introducing excellent role players such as Nurkic and Allen, and they also have the opportunity to make greater breakthroughs. Before the game, Durant said of the game: "We just want to execute the game to the best we can. We have to limit the number of mistakes we make, especially on the road, when we tend to win with the cheers of the home fans, and we have to try to stay calm throughout the game. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Timberwolves sent Conley, Edwards, McDaniels, Towns and Gobert, and the Suns sent Booker, Beal, Durant, Nurkic and Grayson Allen. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Gobert jumped to win, the Timberwolves took the lead in getting the ball, McDaniels made a layup to finish the first goal of the game, Durant retreated from the low post and the mid-distance also opened for the Suns, Edwards suddenly made a cold arrow and scored a goal, Durant was not to be outdone, and immediately turned over and jumped to fight back, Gobert stepped on the snow without a trace to pick up the offensive rebound, and made a strong dunk, Edwards hit a three-point shot at a 45-degree angle, Durant flew on the wing and broke through the layup to score two points, and then scored a goal in the middle distance。
In the first quarter of the game, Durant was full of firepower, scoring 11 points in a single quarter, and the scores of the two teams were also very intense. Edwards used a rhythm change to pick out two points for a layup, Gobert ate a basket and dunked a stunner, and Booker made a drifting jumper into the center of the net, and the first quarter ended with the Suns leading the Timberwolves by one point at 28-27. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Walker's basket helped the Timberwolves take the lead, Beal took two points with the help of cover, three steps to fly to the layup and dropped two points, Li Kaier shook off the defense in three slow steps and easily scored, Beal smashed the Huanglong in the restricted area and played a 2+1, McDaniels mid-range dry pull jump shot hollow into the net, Beal started at the top of the arc, and the lightning broke through the layup and hit a hit, to the first half of the second quarter of the game, the scores of the two sides were still tight, and you chased me to catch up with the lead.
However, after that, the Timberwolves began to break the deadlock, using their interior advantage to score consecutive points, Towns changed his steps to shake off the defensive wipe and hit the board, Gobert dominated the basket and repeatedly dunked, and soon the Timberwolves took a 10-point lead, and at halftime, the Timberwolves led the Suns by 10 points at 61-51. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Beal's 45-degree angle three-point shot suddenly hit a cold arrow, opening the third quarter of the game, Durant hit a back-of-the-back jumper in the paint area, Edwards drove straight into the flying body to wipe the board and win, Durant continued to change backwards and made a high-difficulty twist to the basket, scored and added free throws, Towns made a strong attack under the basket and immediately returned to color, and then another high-arc three-point hole pierced the basket, Durant was not to be outdone, and the three wings split the fire and fell straight to the basket.
Seeing that the Suns were about to catch up with the score under the leadership of Durant, entering the second half of the third quarter, the Suns completely collapsed and fell into a scoring drought of more than 4 minutes, and the Timberwolves seized the opportunity to play a wave of super offense, directly expanding the difference to 20 points. The Suns suffered too much rebounding, and Booker's hand was also quite sluggish, and he didn't score several empty baskets, and after the third quarter of the game, the Timberwolves led the Suns by 20 points 92-72. In the final quarter, although Booker picked up, the Timberwolves played steadily and did not give any chance, and always maintained a lead of more than 20 points, and in the end, the Timberwolves defeated the Suns 120-95 and led 1-0.
In terms of statistics, on the Suns' side, Durant scored 31 points and 7 rebounds, Booker only scored 18 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists on 5-of-16 shooting, Beal had 15 points, 2 rebounds and 6 assists, O'Neal had 14 points and 4 rebounds, Nurkic had 9 points and 4 rebounds, and Allen had 4 points and returned with a foot injury. On the Timberwolves side, Edwards had 33 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, Towns had 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, and the duo had 52 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, Gobert had 14 points and 16 rebounds, Walker had 18 points and 4 rebounds, and Reed had 12 points.