The Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns’ first round series was the first series of the 2024 NBA playoffs to come to a conclusion as the Timberwolves knocked off the Suns 122-116 in Game 4 in Phoenix on Sunday night.
In sweeping the Suns, the Timberwolves’ franchise won their first playoff series since 2004, a season in which Kevin Garnett won league MVP and led the Wolves to a 58-24 record and a Western Conference Finals trip.
This time around, it was all about the Wolves’ budding superstar Anthony Edwards. Edwards dueled with the Suns’ Devin Booker in Game 4, scoring 40 to Booker’s 49. 31 of Edwards’ 40 came in the second half. Save for a 15-point performance in Game 2, the 22-year-old Edwards was outstanding throughout the series, putting up 33 points in Game 1 and 36 in Game 3. In Game 4, Edwards was hitting from deep and scoring on mid-range jump shots and fadeways in the second half, and did it at the defensive end as well with a particularly impressive block on Beal. A highlight dunk on Kevin Durant punctuated his night.
Karl-Anthony Towns also played great for Minnesota, putting up 28 points and 10 rebounds on 11-for-17 shooting. Jaden McDaniels had a big game with 18 points, including a corner three with 3:25 to go in the game that gave the Timberwolves a 113-109 lead.
The Suns got the aforementioned 49 from Booker and 33 points from Durant, but not much at all from the supporting cast. While Booker and Durant were a combined 25-for-36 from the field, Bradley Beal was just 4-for-13, making just one of five three-point attempts. Eric Gordon, another three-point marksman, was just 2-for-7 from the field and 2-for-5 from long distance.
The Timberwolves, the bigger team of the two, outrebounded the Suns 44-33. Over the last two games of the series, the Suns were outrebounded 94-61.
Such a discrepancy provided a glaring difference between the two clubs throughout the series. While the Wolves take the floor with two 7-footers in Towns and Rudy Gobert, Jusuf Nurkic, the Suns’ starting center, is the only big 7-footer regularly in the rotation. The injury to Grayson Allen, the league’s top three-point shooter this year, did not help matters for the Suns. Allen missed the final two games of the series.
The quick first-round exit brings a disappointing end to a season for the Suns that had very high hopes. The trio of Booker-Beal-Durant was expected to catapult them into the top of the conference. Instead, this year’s sweep, compounded with last year’s six game, second round defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, marks two consecutive very underwhelming postseasons for what should have been a title contender. Durant ($51.2 million), Booker ($49.7 million) and Beal ($50.2 million) have large salaries owned to them next season. Booker has four more years left on his deal, while Durant has two, and Beal two with a player option for 2026-2027. Nurkic is under contract for two more years, due $18.1 million next season.
The above numbers put General Manger James Jones and owner Mat Ishbia in a bind going forward. Clearly, the construction of a team with shooters and wing defense and a small ball approach did not work, getting them swiftly swept, defeated by a team with a more traditional rotation and personnel. Health also was not on their side, with Beal playing in only 53 games in a season where building chemistry was important. Jones and Ishbia have some work to do to get the Suns to a level of true contention.
The Timberwolves, meanwhile, will play either the Denver Nuggets or Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. That series could be decided tomorrow if the Nuggets win Game 5, or extended if the Lakers prevail. The 56-win Timberwolves finished a game behind the Nuggets and top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the regular season. They boast the league’s best defense, are a big team, and have a player in Edwards who is fearless, competitive, and complete on the offensive end. The combination of Towns and Gobert gives them a big man tandem that is a nice yin and yang of offense and defense.
Edwards is leading a new time of Timberwolves basketball, which is long overdue as the franchise had very rough years after the Kevin Garnett era.
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