RealGM

Who: Minnesota Timberwolves @ Phoenix Suns

When: Friday, January 28th @ 7:00pm (9:00ET) l BSAZ

Where: Footprint Center, Phoenix, AZ







Minnesota Timberwolves starting lineup:


C- Towns

F- Vanderbilt

F- McDaniels

G- Edwards

G- Russell



Reserves: Prince/Beasley/Nowell/Reid





Phoenix Suns starting lineup:


C- Biyombo

F- Cam

F- Bridges

G- Booker

G- CP3



Reserves: Smith/Shamet/Payton/Wainright

Wolves are 7-3 in their last 10 games and are currently 7th in the West. Could potentially be a 1st round matchup for the Suns in the playoffs. I'm actually really happy for the Wolves fans that they are playing so well because they have a bright future with hopefully no more KAT trade talks if they continue to have success. They are doing this with a rather young roster, Beverly is their most experienced player and then following that it's KAT and DLo. Edwards is having a great 2nd season which I thought he might get that sophomore slump, but he has proved me wrong. I'm worried he might go off, last year he scored 42 on us, and then earlier this season he shot very poorly against us so he might have this game penciled on his calendar. Could use a heavy dose of Bridges on him.

I don't know the extent of injuries for Ayton and McGee but I think KAT is going to feast this game. Hopefully not though and Suns win their 9th straight.

They're on an away B2B at GSW the night before which should help.

Too soon for any of Ayton, Crowder, Payne, McGee?

Wolves are top heavy and if Suns allow all 3 to have a big game it can get messy. Edwards is a problem so Mikal will be very busy.
Last game they played in November, it was a 3pt win for Suns with Towns catching fire late.... Suns had a full team but Payne played horrible.

I think Suns need Cam Johnson to have a big one and also one of their bigs for Suns to win this.

This feels like the game where our run ends. If we field the same team as yesterday, it'll be hard to overcome. We'll have to play a perfect game to get this one. Good shooting, better communication, and Smith bouncing back

Suns magic number for the playoffs - if I counted right is 15 for a play in game
20 for the 6th seed.

35 games to go. Hard to believe, Booker had a three season stretch of 65 total wins.

If the Suns go 27-8 the rest of the way, they will match that win total for one year

Crazy that we have 9 players averaging 10+ points per game. That's insane. I haven't checked but wonder how many other teams had this many players averaging double figures in scoring over the past 20 years.(Crowder .7 away from being 10th with 10 ppg).

Mulhollanddrive wrote:They're on an away B2B at GSW the night before which should help.

Too soon for any of Ayton, Crowder, Payne, McGee?

I doubt B2B would impact Minnesota much, they're mostly young guys.

Is there ANY chance Monty will have Ayton come back for this? I feel we need him.

King4Day wrote:This feels like the game where our run ends. If we field the same team as yesterday, it'll be hard to overcome. We'll have to play a perfect game to get this one. Good shooting, better communication, and Smith bouncing back

Towns always draws a lot of fouls on us and puts Ayton in foul trouble. At least we have depth at C, even if he doesn't play.

spanishninja wrote:

Mulhollanddrive wrote:They're on an away B2B at GSW the night before which should help.

Too soon for any of Ayton, Crowder, Payne, McGee?

I doubt B2B would impact Minnesota much, they're mostly young guys.

Is there ANY chance Monty will have Ayton come back for this? I feel we need him.

Earliest I saw was Sunday vs SAS, no probably not. I do hope that McGee can get it together and give it a go. We'll need bigs that are mobile to deal with KAT. Mikal will have to check A1 I imagine.

This game isn't gonna be a walk. Wolves are good. Like us, they needed a tough vet to come into their locker room and help change the mindset. None of us like Patrick Beverly I'm sure, but he's been great for that team.

King4Day wrote:This feels like the game where our run ends. If we field the same team as yesterday, it'll be hard to overcome. We'll have to play a perfect game to get this one. Good shooting, better communication, and Smith bouncing back

I thought Smith had a decent game. He was 4-7 and one of those misses was a last second leaning three. He had 7 boards, 2 blocks, and a steal. He was getting shoved around a lot, with not much help from the refs. He played through it, and had a key rebound down the stretch.

I am still more concerned with Beverley. Dude has no problem trying to injure players. With Payne out, I could see him targeting Paul.

RunDogGun wrote:I am still more concerned with Beverley. Dude has no problem trying to injure players. With Payne out, I could see him targeting Paul.

Well he's missed the last two games and is currently day-to-day. My bet is he plays against us.

Qwigglez wrote:

RunDogGun wrote:I am still more concerned with Beverley. Dude has no problem trying to injure players. With Payne out, I could see him targeting Paul.

Well he's missed the last two games and is currently day-to-day. My bet is he plays against us.

why couldn't he go to the east? then we only risk him breaking our players twice a season.

spanishninja wrote:

Qwigglez wrote:

RunDogGun wrote:I am still more concerned with Beverley. Dude has no problem trying to injure players. With Payne out, I could see him targeting Paul.

Well he's missed the last two games and is currently day-to-day. My bet is he plays against us.

why couldn't he go to the east? then we only risk him breaking our players twice a season.

Or, why doesn't the league crack down on him for constantly injuring players?

RunDogGun wrote:

spanishninja wrote:

Qwigglez wrote:
Well he's missed the last two games and is currently day-to-day. My bet is he plays against us.

why couldn't he go to the east? then we only risk him breaking our players twice a season.

Or, why doesn't the league crack down on him for constantly injuring players?

man, I would love to see Grayson Allen vs Pat Bev

spanishninja wrote:

RunDogGun wrote:

spanishninja wrote:
why couldn't he go to the east? then we only risk him breaking our players twice a season.

Or, why doesn't the league crack down on him for constantly injuring players?

man, I would love to see Grayson Allen vs Pat Bev

It would be like a bad prize fight where they knock each other out. It would also be like early DGreen vs Bowen

Sad that we might face Pat Bev in the first round and Grayson Allen in the finals. Those two are capable of taking anybody out which scares the crap out of me. Those two add in the Morris twins are only players I despise the most. Lebron is Lebron but my hatred for those dirty azz players shall live on same way it was in 2000s with Bowen, Horry & Artest.

just added a poll you can vote up to three times. If there's a player I missed please say who down below.

Honorable mention: Grayson Allen, Marcus Morris, Duncan, Ginobili, Harden, Griffin etc.

SunsRback4Good wrote:Sad that we might face Pat Bev in the first round and Grayson Allen in the finals. Those two are capable of taking anybody out which scares the crap out of me. Those two add in the Morris twins are only players I despise the most. Lebron is Lebron but my hatred for those dirty azz players shall live on same way it was in 2000s with Bowen, Horry & Artest.

I don't believe MIL does it again. They got so freaking lucky last year vs the Nets. Everyone forgets about KD by himself almost beat them. If he had Kyrie and Harden the current "champs" would've swept in the 2nd round.

I still like Bed-Stuy vs them, I think a healthy Miami team will run them as well and quite frankly I'd be real interested to see a healthy Cavs team vs them in a 7 game series. Sexton might come back by playoffs and if so, he can give that team quite a jolt off the bench...