After it was thoroughly dismantled in three regular season meetings by Phoenix, the Timberwolves returned the favor when it mattered most.
Minnesota sent a major message to open the series en route to a 120-95 Game 1 victory at Target Center.
Suddenly, the series looks a lot more like advantage Wolves than the tossup it was originally viewed to be. Game 2 of the first-round series is Tuesday in Minneapolis.
What a shift in feelings from a week prior, when the Suns nuked Minnesota on the same floor in the regular season finale, forcing the Wolves into a first-round date with one of the hotter teams in the NBA — no pun intended.
A week ago, Minnesota didn’t seem to have an answer for Phoenix’s plethora of perimeter scorers. Conversations centered on ways in which Minnesota could go smaller to better match up with Phoenix.
But that was far from the case Saturday. Size was very much Minnesota’s ally. Rudy Gobert grabbed 16 rebounds on a day where the Wolves out-rebounded Phoenix 52-28 and scored 52 points in the paint to the Suns’ 34.
That was the thing Minnesota could hang its hat on throughout the day, and utilized it to maintain a healthy advantage capable of enduring any mini-Phoenix run. The Wolves led by 10 at the break.
And then the Anthony Edwards show came to life.
The 22-year-old all-star has always been a primetime performer who’s shined in the playoffs. Saturday was no different. Phoenix had trimmed Minnesota’s advantage to four midway through the third frame when Edwards delivered one of his patented third quarter explosions.
This time, he scored 18 in the quarter with a number of big-time hits. After one of the biggest ones at the end of the third, Edwards started talking all kinds of smack to Kevin Durant — who he’s noted on many occasions has always been his favorite NBA player.
All Durant could do was smile and laugh.
Edwards finished with 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
The Wolves truly blew the doors off the contest over a stretch spanning the late in the third quarter and early in the fourth when Edwards, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker put on a 3-point barrage. The trio combined to make 7 of 9 attempts in a span that saw Minnesota’s advantage balloon from 13 to 25.
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