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Suns at Wolves: Trying to Keep it Rolling

The Wolves face a Phoenix Suns team without Devin Booker as their home stand continues.

By Eric in Madison
NBA: Phoenix Suns at Minnesota Timberwolves Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Suns at Wolves
7:00 pm CDT
FS North

The Wolves finally got a relatively stress-free win against the Kings on Thursday night, and will be looking for another against the Phoenix Suns, who sit 14th in the Western Conference, at 9-21. Making matters worse for the Suns is they continue to miss Devin Booker, their most dangerous scorer, who remains out with an injury.

Overall, the Suns are bad offensively (25th in the league) and even worse on defense, with the worst D-rtg in the NBA. The Wolves are in position to get their fourth win in five games against a team they are clearly better than, but a word of caution: We’ve been here before.

One of the worst losses of the season was against these Suns in Phoenix, when they let the Suns hang around all game then disintegrated in the fourth quarter on their way to a 118-110 loss. Of course, Booker was playing in that game, and poured in 35 points (as did T.J. Warren.) Without Booker, the Suns are severely lacking in offensive weapons, and even with the expected return of Tyson Chandler to the lineup, they have been awful defensively all season.

The Wolves need to take care of business, and especially pay attention to their transition defense, as the Suns play at one of the fastest paces in the league. But in truth, if they show up with focus, they should be able to grab another win. They have far more talent than the Suns, and are clearly the better team. They should have no problem scoring. I would like to see another strong defensive performance as well.

As we’ve discussed, the Wolves are in the midst of a soft part of the schedule. They cannot drop games like this one if they want to maintain their spot in the Western Conference. I’d love to see them take care of things early tonight and enjoy another low-stress win. They have the Blazers coming in next for an important show down .They can’t let down tonight.

Expected Lineups

Suns

Tyler Ullis
Josh Jackson
T.J. Warren
Greg Monroe
Marquese Chriss

Wolves

Jeff Teague
Jimmy Butler
Andrew Wiggins
Taj Gibson
Karl-Anthony Towns

Our blogging buddies are over at Bright Side of the Sun. Be excellent.

Enjoy the game. Chat here. Go Wolves.