What is Suns Biggest Concern vs Wolves?
Minnesota has one clear matchup advantage over Phoenix.
PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns are just days away from an extremely consequential series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Much has been made about the Suns' sheer dominance over Minnesota in the regular season - along with the multitude of clear matchup advantages the Suns have going into a playoff series. Phoenix won all three matchups against the Timberwolves by a combined 47 points.
Minnesota could have some matchup quirks on their side, however.
Most of all, the presence of Karl-Anthony Towns - who has returned within the last week from a meniscus tear - could be the biggest factor.
Towns hasn't historically been a strong playoff performer, but Minnesota hasn't utilized him to his best abilities in past playoff runs either.
This advantage for the Wolves has much to do with the Suns not having a clear-cut cross matchup to counter Towns - outside of perhaps Kevin Durant.
Durant could shadow Towns and thus prevent him from having ample opportunities to be productive on both post-up chances and dribble-drives.
The issue is going in that direction will leave coach Frank Vogel scrambling to find ways to throw different coverages at Anthony Edwards in an effort to continue throwing him off-kilter.
In a perfect world, this would be a clean matchup for Phoenix across the board. But it simply is not.
While this is the ideal first-round matchup for the Suns, Minnesota has an opportunity to exploit the paint defense with the re-integration of Towns in the lineup. The major question at hand is - will they take full advantage of this purported matchup advantage?
Game 1 of Suns-Timberwolves will begin on Saturday in Minneapolis.
