Draymond Green's sage advice for Kevin Durant, Suns to beat Timberwolves
23/04/2024 02:42
The Phoenix Suns swept the Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves back in the regular season. But their dominance of the T’wolves ended in Game 1 of their first-round series last Saturday, as Kevin Durant and company absorbed a brutal 120-95 loss in the Twin Cities. Durant played well in that game, as he got what he wanted most of the time on offense versus Minnesota’s vaunted defense, but he was not able to get enough support from his fellow stars Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.
Enter Durant’s former teammate and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, who gave unsolicited advice for the Suns during a recent episode of his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, about how the roles of KD, Booker, Beal, and even Grayson Allen should be in the Timberwolves series.
“What the Phoenix Suns are going to have to do is they’re going to have to play KD or Anthony Edwards the entire series that has to be his matchup,” Green said.
Durant’s length and mobility still pose a major threat defensively to Edwards and the Timberwolves, but for the Suns to ask the future Hall of Famer to carry most of the scoring load and be the No. 1 weapon against Miinnesota’s top scoring threat at the same time seems to be too much for Green.
“And what Phoenix has to do is they have to rely on Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen. You’re gonna have to hit some shots and they’re gonna have to rely on those guys to carry the low offensively because to ask Kevin to go try to lock up Anthony Edwards and then go carry the load on the offensive end on year 18, It ain’t happening every night.”
"They're gonna have to play Kevin Durant on Anthony Edwards the entire series… [Phoenix] has to rely on Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Grayson Allen to carry the load offensively."
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— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 22, 2024
The loss to the Timberwolves can also be pinned on the lack of support that Durant got. Booker scored 18 points but he was an inefficient 5/18 from the field and also committed four turnovers. Beal was more efficient, as he went 6/15 from the floor for 15 points, but that’s not up to par with what Phoenix dreamed it would get from him in the playoffs when they traded for him last summer. Allen, who is questionable for Game 2 at the time of this writing because of an ankle issue, missed all of his three field goal attempts (all from the 3-point area) in Game 1.
Suns struggle in Game 1 vs despite Kevin Durant’s big offensive performance
Back in the series opener, the Suns were able to get a terrific performance on offense from Durant, which was not much of a surprise. He scored 31 points to lead the Suns while shooting 11/17 from the field and making seven of his nine attempts from the free throw line. He also had seven rebounds, an assist, a block, and a steal in 39 minutes — the most anyone on the team played in that contest.
Durant’s big game was merely offset by the much more balanced attack of the Timberwolves, who were led by Edwards’ 33 points. Edwards had a fantastic start to the series and that’s not a good sign for the Suns, who also got massively outrebounded in the series opener, 52-28.
The significant difference in the rebounding department in Game 1 explains a lot of why the Timberwolves also ended up having 13 more shots from the field than Phoenix. The Suns certainly don’t want that to be a trend with Edwards and the T’wolves, who finished the regular season 10th overall in the league with a 56.0 effective field goal percentage.
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