The No. 6 Phoenix Suns enter their first home game of the playoffs in tonight’s Game 3 matchup against the No. 3 Timberwolves down 0-2 after two straight bad losses in Minnesota.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Suns guard Grayson Allen (right ankle sprain) and Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson (right hip pointers) are questionable for the matchup.
Despite the way they’ve played in Games 1 and 2, Kevin Durant believes the Suns are on the same page.
“Of course,” Durant said yesterday on if the team is on the same page still. “We’re around each other every day. We’re committed to this grind together, for sure. Do we agree on everything all the time? Nah. We have constant communication on what may work, and we’ve got different perspectives in that locker room, of course. That’s what great teams do, but everybody understands the mission. Everybody is in this together.”
Minnesota has combined to outscore Phoenix 114-86 in the second half of these two games. There have been a lot of question marks on why the Suns have come out so flat in the second half of both of these games. Durant gave a long explanation as to the team’s shortcomings.
“We just didn’t play well, just didn’t execute,” Durant said. “You can talk all you want, if you don’t execute what you just talked about, it does you no good. Talking, the rah-rah speeches and all that stuff is cool to a certain point, but you got to go out there and execute, and I think we haven’t done that. We’ve done it in spurts, don’t get me wrong about this series, but it’s not good good enough doing it in spurts.
“Sometimes you just got to do it instead of thinking too much or talking too much, and I think we got guys that have done that before, who have understood that it’s just about getting the job done at the end of the day regardless of what’s being said or how you feel or what’s on your heart as a person or plate, just get your job done. I think we’ll do that, but we got to put it together consistently. I think that’s what our season has been, sometimes we put it together for long stretches and then sometimes we don’t.”
In Tuesday’s 105-93 Game 2 loss, the Suns’ Big 3 finished a combined 18-for-45 (40%) from the floor with 12 of the team’s 19 turnovers, while each playing over 40 minutes. Devin Booker had 20 points (6-of-13 shooting, 1-of-6 from 3), five assists, three rebounds, six fouls, six turnovers and was a -24 in terms of plus/minus. Durant was also a -24, as he had 18 points (6-of-15 shooting, 0-of-2 from 3), six rebounds, two assists and two turnovers. Bradley Beal finished with 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting (2-of-4 from 3), six assists, four rebounds and four turnovers and was a -21.
The Suns are now averaging a league-worst 17.5 turnovers per game in the playoffs. In Game 2, the Timberwolves outscored them 31-2 (!) on points off turnovers.
Even with these stats, Durant reiterated multiple times that the team is still on the same page.
“We know what the mission is from Day 1,” Durant said. “We understood what we were trying to get to, what type of team we wanted to be and where we wanted to play at the end of the season. So everybody has been coming in here with that type of mindset since training camp started. Of course we’re on the same page.
“When we lose a game, it’s definitely (not) going to look like that because we lost the game, but if you dig deeper into who we are as a team, if you’re around us every day and see what we do and how we grind every day as a team, you wouldn’t ask those questions, but I get it. A lot of people don’t see the inside.”
The Suns have not come back from an 0-2 deficit since the 1993 playoffs in a first-round series against the Lakers. This was a best-of-5 series, so the Suns won all three of the remaining games. Phoenix ended up going all the way to the NBA Finals before losing to the Seattle SuperSonics.
Teams up 2-0 in the NBA playoffs are 416-33 all time, meaning they win 92.7% of the time. Two of these 33 series losses have come to the Suns in the last three years: in the 2021 NBA Finals to the Milwaukee Bucks and in the 2022 second round to the Dallas Mavericks.
Durant came back from an 0-2 deficit with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 Western Conference Finals by defeating the San Antonio Spurs 4-2 to advance to the NBA Finals, where the Thunder lost to the Miami Heat.
“You just got to go out there and do your job, man,” Durant said. “I can give a speech about what it’s like in the playoffs or what a series was like being down 0-2, coming back. I can go give that speech in the locker room all I want. We still got to go out there and execute the game plan that we got in place and go out there and play as hard as we can, get this one win. Possession-at-a-time basketball.
All that stuff is cool, but at the end of the day, these guys know what it is around this time. It’s playoff time, everybody understands it, I don’t think we got to do anything extra.”
Can the Suns prove Durant’s point in Game 3 that they are on the same page and avoid going down 0-3?
Devin Booker, Kevin Durant call for fans to ‘not count us out’
10 Keys to Game 2 for the Suns
- Stop turning the ball over and play better transition defense if you do
- Show connectivity – no more being stagnant on offense
- Getting out in transition offensively
- Shoot more 3s
- Don’t allow big momentum swings, especially in third quarter
- Continue excellent defense on Anthony Edwards, Karl Anthony-Towns
- Rebounding
- 2 of Big 3 to get going
- Adjust to physicality
- Don’t lose composure
Potential Rotation Adjustments for Suns
These are some potential lineup changes the Suns could make (assuming Grayson Allen is good to go). I had most of these for Game 2, but they are still relevant for coach Frank Vogel to do in Game 3:
- Start Royce O’Neale over Allen
- Get Bol Bol in the rotation (expand rotation from 8 to 9 players)
- Play Thaddeus Young over Drew Eubanks
- Insert Josh Okogie into the rotation as well
Is playing Bol Bol the Suns biggest rotation adjustment they need to make?
Game 2 Information
Start Time: 7:30 p.m. MST
Location: Footprint Center
TV Channel: AZ Family/3TV, ESPN
Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, La Mejor 106.5 FM
Stream: Suns Live (click for more info)
Full Series Schedule/Results
- Game 1: Wolves 120 – Suns 95
- Game 2: Wolves 105 – Suns 93
- Game 3: Wolves at Suns, Friday, April 26, 7:30 p.m. on AZ Family/3TV, ESPN
- Game 4: Wolves at Suns, Sunday, April 28, 6:30 p.m., on AZ Family/3TV, TNT
- Game 5*: Suns at Wolves, Tuesday, April 30, TBD, on TBD
- Game 6*: Wolves at Suns, Thursday, May 2, TBD, on TBD
- Game 7* Suns at Wolves, Saturday, May 4, TBD, on TNT
*if necessary
Previous Results from the Regular-Season Series
- Suns 133 – Timberwolves 115 on Nov. 15 in Phoenix
- Suns 97 – Timberwolves 87 on April 5 in Phoenix
- Suns 125 – Timberwolves 106 on April 14 in Minnesota
Game 2 Betting Odds
Line: PHX -4.5
O/U: 208.5
Injury Report
Phoenix Suns: Grayson Allen (right ankle sprain) QUESTIONABLE | Damion Lee (right meniscus surgery) OUT
Minnesota Timberwolves: Kyle Anderson (right hip pointer) QUESTIONABLE
Starters (Projected)
Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, Kevin Durant, Jusuf Nurkić
Minnesota Timberwolves: Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Karl Anthony-Towns, Rudy Gobert
Game 2 Prediction
Suns 107 – Timberwolves 95
It’s hard to keep picking the Suns because of how they’ve been playing, but they have to recognize this is a do-or-die situation. If you have a roster built around Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker on your team, you have to show why you will not go down 3-0 to any team in the NBA, especially a team you dominated in the regular season. The Suns have to feed off the home crowd’s energy tonight and prove they are still capable of playing well, or this will be an ugly end to the team’s up-and-down season.
Injury Report
Grayson Allen reveals his injury status for tomorrow’s Game 3 matchup against Timberwolves
Other Game 3 Previews/ Stories from Game 2
Is the Suns season over after Game 2 loss to Timberwolves? Fans think so
Frank Vogel says Suns didn’t keep their composure in Game 2 loss to Timberwolves
Is it time to question whether Devin Booker is overrated or not?
Charles Barkley sticks to his take of what is wrong with Suns
Kevin Durant praises Jaden McDaniels after dominant Game 2 performance
Chandler Parsons on Suns: ‘Literally start Isaiah Thomas, start a point guard’
Phoenix Suns’ Playoff Hopes: Riding on the Bark of ‘Air Corg’
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
