When thinking about writing this preview as a fan I had to take a few days to let go of the disappointment that was our final regular season game. To have the one seed in our grasp and instead get whooped by my least favorite matchup for the team in the playoffs to drop to play them as a three seed made me angry. There is no better way to put that but now it is time to lock in because if the Wolves are contenders we can beat the Suns.
The Suns beat the Wolves twice in their last ten as they went 7-3 in all of those games to close their run to the six seed and a guaranteed playoff berth. The Suns were one of the only teams that swept the Wolves this season which creates a scary matchup however the players all know the history with the Suns. Ant said the only goal is to find a way to beat them while KAT said it is the Minnesota way to play a team like them. KAT will spend the next week trying to get even more healthy.
I believe NAW could be an X Factor for the Wolves this series. While PHX hasn’t been has scared by the Wolves big closing lineup (Conley, Edwards, Mcdaniels, KAT, Rudy or Anderson) NAW’s length as a guard defender could see him getting extra run especially in the closing parts of games. It also could help scoring since he shoots almost forty percent from three. PHX likes to spread teams out to rely on shooting so three point shots will be huge for the Wolves all series long.
My prediction for this series is what you think it would be. As a biased Wolves fan I think we get the job done in seven games. It will be important to show out on Saturday afternoon and Game 2 at home as dropping one of those could lead us to early end to a fun season. I will recap each game here for West Coast Hoops.
West Coast Hoops 