On April 24, Beijing time, the first round of the 2023-24 NBA playoffs G2 continued, and a key battle in the West was staged, and the Minnesota Timberwolves continued to sit at home to face the Phoenix Suns. In the matchup in G1, the Timberwolves beat the Suns 120-95. The Timberwolves were significantly better prepared for that game, with the core and bench players on the line and running more smoothly overall. The core players of the Suns are only Durant online, and Booker and Beal have encountered varying degrees of dumb fire.
The key to the Suns' victory in this game will be how to limit Edwards, the Suns have not been able to limit his players at a single point, once the space to take the other players comes out. And Downs is also cutting the big core, and the inside and outside are working at the same time, and it is difficult for the Sun to resist. On the other hand, if the Suns' Big 3 has at least 2 forces, it will also be a huge test for the Timberwolves' defense. The starting lineups of both teams in this game have not been adjusted, is it the Timberwolves to win another city, or the Suns to pull back a city?
In the first quarter, the Timberwolves got off to a dream start, Edwards scored 5 points in a row, McDaniels counterattacked and dunked Durant to foul 2 and hit 1 free throw, Gobert dunked and continued, and a wave of 8-0 directly stopped the Suns! Allen scored 3 points in the bottom corner of the left corner to break the Suns' scoring drought in the past 4 minutes, Nurkic hooked up the firepower, and the Suns sounded the horn of counterattack. After that, Booker opened the scoring account, frequently hit the inside line to get free throws, and scored 8 points in a single quarter; the Suns once narrowed the gap to 1 point, but Beal dunked and smashed and missed a good opportunity to overtake! The Timberwolves played a counterattack to end the first quarter, the score was 24-21, and the Timberwolves led by 3 points;
In the second quarter, the Suns used the impact of the interior as the main means of scoring, Durant and Beal began to exert their strength, the former was 3 of 4, 3 of 3 free throws cut 9 points, Beal also scored 7 points, and the Suns overtook the score with a wave of offense! Timberwolves Towns was plagued by fouls, and basically did not play in the second quarter. But the veteran Conley stepped up, scoring 12 points on 5-of-7 in a single quarter, including 2-of-3 on 3-pointers, leading the team to bite the score; at halftime, the Suns led by one point at 51-50;
Yibian fought again, and the Timberwolves' defensive strategy in this section was very clear, strictly blocking the outside line and actively defending against it. Forcing the Suns to hit the inside hard, and this is playing into the Timberwolves' trap. The sun often ends up striking iron with an impenetrable net of twin towers on the inside, and the forest has also targeted the sun's arrowheads, forcing them away from the heart of the box. Durant struggled in this quarter, scoring only 2 points on 1-of-6 shooting, Booker and Beal only scored 10 points in total; the Timberwolves were not allowed to shoot outside the quarter, only 2 of 7 shots, but they hit the inside and got more free throw opportunities; at the end of the 3rd quarter, the Timberwolves led by 7 points at 78-71;
The Timberwolves continued to display a strong sense of defensive pressing in the final quarter, while combining inside and outside well. Gobert hit 2 free throws and 2 hits, Beal broke through to the layup in response, and then Walker, Gobert, and Towns scored 6 points in a row, Conley continued to score 3 points, and McDaniels cut 4 points in a row, and a small climax point difference came to 17 points! Directly stopped the Suns; there were 7 minutes and 51 seconds left in the game, and the Suns' timeouts were all used up! At the critical moment of chasing points, Durant basically didn't touch the ball, and stood in the bottom corners of both sides, Allen's injury and retirement also made the Suns' rotation worse; the Timberwolves continued to open up the difference to 19 points, and there was basically no suspense in the game. With more than 2 minutes left in the game, the final score was fixed at 105-93, and the Timberwolves led 2-0.
Statistics:
In this game, the Suns scored 5 double-doubles, but the state of the Big 3 was average. Durant had 18 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal, the lowest plus/minus of -24 in the game, Booker had 20 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, and the plus/minus value was also -24, tied for the penultimate No.1!Beal had 14 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists, Nurkic had 10 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists, Gordon had 15 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal, and Eubanks had 8 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals;
On the Timberwolves side, McDaniels had 25 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, Gobert 18 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, Conley 18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, Huazi 15 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, Towns 12 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal, and Walker 7 points, 1 board, 5 assists and 1 steal.