Predict the Series

[Coolbreeze44]

Wolves in 4:

• We make Durant beat us and he comes up short.
• Rudy averages 5 O Boards a game and draws 10 fouls a game.
• Grayson Allen wakes up and realizes he's not the best 3pt shooter in history and goes on a slump.
• Booker shoots 17 FT per game but doesn't make a 3 the whole series.
• Beal gets torched by our backcourt and tries to chuck on offense to make up for it.
• Kat makes 35 3s in the series.
• Glen Taylor is visited by the ghosts of basketball past, present, and future, causing him to run down 1st ave in his pajamas, hallucinating a Lynx championship parade, signing the team over to Lore with an agreement that he will personally pay the lux tax next year.
• Naz reid gets elected mayor despite not being on the ballot or there being an election
• Ant's dog wins best in show at the AKC dog show.
• Mike Conley gets his first technical for taunting in the waning minutes of g4 while we're up by 25

Playoffs baby, lets gooooo!

Good stuff Dave. The NAZ line was my favorite

[Coolbreeze44]

This will be a tough series. However, this Wolves team will win it in 6 games. I just wish the 1st game wasn't at 3:30PM. They should change it to later, so I can watch it.

Happy to have your prognosticating skills in our favor

[ItsJustSoSab]

Suns in 6. Other than the Nuggets this is the match up I've worried about for months. Also I don't trust KAT overall in the playoffs and ANT in the clutch

[AbeVigodaLive]

As noted many times... it's all about matchups. Unfortunately. The Wolves have matchup problems on BOTH ends of the court. Obviously, there's no place to hide Towns and to a lesser extent Conley on defense. As for offense, Phoenix has played a style that is daring Edwards to play unselfish, pass-first basketball. It's simply not in his nature. And it's not what he's best at.

I predict we'll hear a lot of "I'll learn from this" mantras from Edwards in a couple of weeks. In the long run (for his career), it might make it a positive experience. For a team in "win right now before age and salary caps become an issue" mode, it'll be frustrating.

Towns is the other X factor. It's been 9 years. Has he gained your trust that he'll play the smartest basketball of his career... especially after an 18-game layoff? Add in a terrible whistle... and the Suns are going to dare Towns with small people guarding him all series. Durant isn't small. But Towns will also be matched up with O'Neal, Allen, Gordon and maybe even Beal or Booker. Will he end up with more "and ones" against them or charges?

Remember, we've seen 9 years of this.

Suns in 6.




[Note: If the Wolves lose Saturday... it could get very ugly.]

[FNG]

I have to admit I'm finding the "Suns in 6" arguments a little more compelling than my "Wolves in 7". I'm sticking with it though.

One thing that confuses me is all the talk about "the smaller Suns". It seems to me that we're comparable in size at 4 of the starting positions...the Suns are only smaller at SF (Jaden vs. Ted Cruz doppleganger Punchable Face). I guess I don't see that much difference in size.

[Carlos Danger]

I'm going to go completely against the grain so I can be all by myself. Wolves in 8

[Q-is-here]

As noted many times... it's all about matchups. Unfortunately. The Wolves have matchup problems on BOTH ends of the court. Obviously, there's no place to hide Towns and to a lesser extent Conley on defense. As for offense, Phoenix has played a style that is daring Edwards to play unselfish, pass-first basketball. It's simply not in his nature. And it's not what he's best at.

I predict we'll hear a lot of "I'll learn from this" mantras from Edwards in a couple of weeks. In the long run (for his career), it might make it a positive experience. For a team in "win right now before age and salary caps become an issue" mode, it'll be frustrating.

Towns is the other X factor. It's been 9 years. Has he gained your trust that he'll play the smartest basketball of his career... especially after an 18-game layoff? Add in a terrible whistle... and the Suns are going to dare Towns with small people guarding him all series. Durant isn't small. But Towns will also be matched up with O'Neal, Allen, Gordon and maybe even Beal or Booker. Will he end up with more "and ones" against them or charges?

Remember, we've seen 9 years of this.

Suns in 6.




[Note: If the Wolves lose Saturday... it could get very ugly.]

Yup, hard to trust that Ant and KAT can get it done against a smart coach like Vogel and veteran playoff team that has already figured out that you can bait these guys into their worst tendencies. On Dane Moore's podcast, Britt Robson stated it perfectly: When KAT and Ant are on the floor together, they each become stupider. That's a blunt statement, but true.

[FNG]

Finchie talked in the StarTrib this morning about the value of having almost a week to game plan and practice for the Suns. One of the negative factors that has been mentioned here a few times is how poorly Ant has played against the Suns. They have been successful running 2 or sometimes 3 guys at him whenever he gets the ball. I have to believe that much of the practice time this week has been designed to get Ant more comfortable passing the ball to open teammates when he is doubled or tripled. Conley and KAT are elite 3-point shooters, and I expect Finchie is putting in multiple plays directing them where to go when Ant gets the ball so that Ant knows exactly where to find them.

To me one of the main keys to winning this series is Ant passing out of double teams (and of course the teammate has to make the shot). We saw some improvement in him during the season, and a week of focus on improving in this skill could be very beneficial. There's no reason KAT, NAW, Naz, Jaden and our three point guards shouldn't have many 3-point opportunities if Ant gets tripled, and all of them (with the exception of Jaden) have been elite shooters this year.

[Porckchop]

Wolves in 6, if it goes 7 then Phoenix. We need a healthy Connelly all series to keep Ant and Kat from showing their ugly sides.

[Q-is-here]

Wolves in 6, if it goes 7 then Phoenix. We need a healthy Connelly all series to keep Ant and Kat from showing their ugly sides.

Indeed. We need Conley hitting on all cylinders and a "hot hands" version of Rudy. KAT and Ant aren't going to get it done without Mommy and Daddy helping to lead the way.