Are the Phoenix Suns officially cooked in the 2024 NBA Playoffs? If you’ve watched the opening two games of their first-round NBA Playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, you might answer in the affirmative to that question.
Back in Game 1 in Minnesota Saturday afternoon, the Suns were outscored by 15 points in the second half en route to losing by the score of 120-95.
While Phoenix was the sixth seed heading into the NBA Playoffs, a lot of “experts” around the league believed that it had the upper-hand over a young Timberwolves squad.
About that? The Suns just did not come to play in Game 2 Tuesday night, losing by 12 points.
It was a somewhat close game before Phoenix imploded big time in the fourth quarter. The team was outscored 27-17 in the final stanza before both sides cleared their benches. Devin Booker fouled out. Frustration was the name of the game for Frank Vogel’s squad as it appears they simply don’t have an answer.
All the while, underrated guard Grayson Allen exited in the third quarter with an ugly-looking ankle injury. The end result was Phoenix losing by the score of 105-93 and heading back home down 2-0 in the series.
This comes on the heels of Phoenix losing in the Western Conference Semifinals a year ago. It also comes with the team having built a supposed “super team” with the likes of Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
All the trio did Tuesday night was shoot a combined 18-of-45 from the field with a whopping 12 turnovers. That’s really not going to cut it.
Related: Phoenix Suns standing in Sportsnaut’s NBA Playoff rankings
NBA world not too kind to Phoenix Suns latest playoff implosion
As is typically the case when an NBA team attempts to “buy” itself a title, those reacting to the Suns’ meltdown in Minneapolis were not too friendly to what we saw in Game 2.