The Phoenix Suns put up a terrific all-round display to grab a 125-106 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the ultimate game of the regular season. However, just the victory wasn’t enough for Frank Vogels’ boys to clinch the 6th seed in the Western Conference. The Arizona side received help from the Los Angeles Lakers, who had to defeat the New Orleans Pelicans. After LeBron James and Co. did grabbed a victory, helping the Suns to move up a spot in the standings, Devin Booker shockingly backtracked on his “Go Lakers” comments.
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Before tonight’s win against Anthony Edwards and Co., there was only one scenario possible that clinched the Phoenix Suns a spot in the postseason without having to participate in the play-in tournament. Not only did the Suns have to clinch a victory, but they would also require the Pelicans to lose against the Lakers. Having an ulterior motive, Devin Booker displayed his support for the LA side on Friday.
Booker said, “Go Lakers!”, per Duane Rankin.
With everything working out in their favor, D-Book hilariously took back all his support for the Purple & Gold. During the postgame interview, the 6ft 6” guard said:
“I don’t care about them anymore. Nah, I’m just messing with you. Crazy how everything worked out. Long season, I keep saying, the play-in makes a lot of things interesting. Moving forward everybody is gonna value every game and not just the final stretch. There’s losses at the beginning of the season that usually you forget about that come back at haunt you,” Book said.
It is difficult to argue with Booker. Instead of having the need to rely on the outcomes of the other matchups, teams should much rather take every game of the season seriously.
In hindsight, there are a few games that every franchise must be looking back at and regretting. However, despair about the past won’t be doing teams any favors at this stage of the season. The only option remaining now is to try and win every game and hope for the absolute best outcome possible.
Devin Booker and Co. will face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round
With the virtue of the Phoenix Suns winning today’s contest, the Minnesota Timberwolves fall down to the 3rd spot in the Western Conference. Entering the playoff as the 3rd seed, Chris Finch’s boys will match up against Devin Booker and co. in the first round.
The Timberwolves have dominated all campaign long and concluded the year as their most successful regular season since the 2003-2004 campaign. Despite being only 1 win away from clinching the #1 seed in the West, the team dropped down to the #3 seed after their latest loss. Consequently, they now have the misfortune of facing Kevin Durant and the superteam Suns in the first round.
The Phoenix Suns are one of only two teams to have blown out the Wolves in their regular season series. Having played on 3 occasions during the course of the campaign, the Suns not only clinched all victories but also had a dominant performance in each one, having an average points difference of 15.6 points per game. Morale will further be affected considering that tonight’s loss was the largest defeat (19 points) among the three, per Statmuse.
The All-Star trio of Kevin Durant, Booker, and Bradley Beal combined for 74 points. Whereas, the Wolves’ trio of Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Rudy Gobert only recorded a total of 44 points, per NBA.com. The difference in the performance of each of the team’s big three has to be the most concerning aspect of the loss.
However, even KD is aware that the Wolves will be approaching the playoffs with a completely different mindset.
With KAT being fully fit, the Suns will be smart enough to not let the 3-0 head-to-head regular season record against the Timberwolves get to their heads.
