Suns get help from Lakers, land 6th seed
MINNEAPOLIS – The Phoenix Suns achieved three things in Sunday’s 125106 win before a sellout crowd at the Target Center to end the 82-game regular season.
One, grab the sixth seed in the West to avoid the play-in. The Lakers helped them out by winning at New Orleans. The Suns and Pelicans have the same record, but Phoenix owns the head-tohead tiebreaker.
Two, sweep the season series over the Timberwolves, 3-0. The Suns (4933) scored 133 points in the first matchup, held the T-Wolves to 87 points in the second one and scored 35 points off 24 Minnesota turnovers Sunday.
Three, send a message (56-26) that this first-round matchup is going to be challenging even though the T-Wolves, as a third seed, have home court advantage.
The Timberwolves dropped to the third seed by losing to Phoenix coupled with defending NBA champion Denver winning at Memphis and Oklahoma City topping Dallas.
Phoenix has had an up-and-down season, but it finished 7-3 in its last 10 games facing, at the time, the NBA’s toughest remaining schedule. The Suns were 11th in defensive rating during that stretch.
“We’re excited,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “We would’ve been confident to play in a play-in game, but you avoid the possibility of bad shooting or a rolled ankle changing the fate of your season. We were motivated to play all 82. It was going to take all 82.”
Looking back
The Suns put themselves in a position of having to win their final three games after losing their final regular season home game to the Clippers. They responded by beating the Clippers in the second of a back-to-back in Los Angeles and then a 108-107 comeback win at Sacramento.
Bradley Beal’s celebration after the final play in Sacramento, with his teammates and coaches all surrounding him, created an emotional surge that seemed to carry over into Sunday’s game.
The Suns led by as many as 22 points in the first quarter, and maintained a comfortable lead throughout the game.
Beal scored a game-high 36 points Sunday, going a perfect 6-of-6 from 3, to lead the Suns to arguably their biggest win of the season when considering what was at stake.
He added six rebounds and five assists to just one turnover, two steals and a blocked shot.
“Beyond excited,” Beal said. “Kind of hard to put into words. The opportunity that we have, the team I’m on, I just embrace every moment. I don’t take the moment for granted or the opportunity for granted. It’s a special group. I want to embrace that and that’s why I’m here. I came here to play in these type of games.”
“It’s crazy,” Suns superstar Kevin Durant said. “It’s a long season, but you got to play every game down to the wire. Every game matters. A lot of games each team in this league feel like they probably gave away six to seven wins. That’s just part of the NBA, part of the grind, but it was good that we were able to come in here and control our destiny a little bit with the last game. Glad the Lakers came out there and did their thing, too.”
After surviving Friday at Sacramento, Devin Booker said, “Go Lakers!” heading into Sunday’s final day of the regular season.
That win put the Lakers in position to land the seventh seed with a win over the Pelicans.
Los Angeles delivered, 124-108, in New Orleans.
Now the rivals can go back to being rivals again.
“I don’t care about them anymore,” Booker joked. “Nah, I’m just messing with you. It’s crazy how everything worked out. It’s a long season. I keep saying the play-in makes a lot of things interesting. I think moving forward, everybody is going to value every game, not just the final stretch. Those losses at the beginning of the season that usually you forget about can come back to haunt you.”
The Lakers now have the eighth seed and will play at New Orleans in the playin tournament game on Tuesday.
Learning for the near future
The Beal matchup was a nightmare for the T-Wolves. He’s super excited for the playoffs, and that’s contagious for his teammates who have won championships like Durant or played in the finals like Booker.
He’s still sacrificing his offense overall by playing the one and guarding the opponent’s top offensive player, but Beal is fully capable of a 30-piece at any time.
That’s scary even for Minnesota, the top defensive team in the league that didn’t look like it in two of the three games against the Suns.
Still, T-Wolves coach Chris Finch will have his team’s undivided attention this week in practice as they prepare for the Suns in the playoffs. They’ll be better starting Saturday, trust and believe that. This weekend, I can’t see Phoenix duplicating the number of turnovers it forced Sunday.
The T-Wolves will be smarter with the ball, as Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards each committed five turnovers.
The Suns were not only aggressive on defense but smarter in their positions.
“It means nothing,” Vogel said on Phoenix sweeping the season series over Minnesota. “We have the utmost respect for this basketball team. They have not played their best against us, but we’ve seen them kick everybody’s butt throughout the season. They have the best defense in the league. Anthony Edwards is one of the most dynamic guys in the league. One of the most difficult guys to stop. They’ve got defensive firepower all over. KAT is still getting his legs under him. He’ll be better when the playoffs begin. It’s going to be a dogfight.”
The Suns are still turnover-prone, have struggles guarding on the perimeter and can go from looking great to looking disastrous in a hiccup, but the wild win Friday at Sacramento may prove to be a real turning point for them if a deep playoff run ensues.
Then again, the T-Wolves could bounce Phoenix in six. That’s how wide the postseason range is for the Suns. This team could easily reach the finals or not make it past the first round.