Rabbit Hole: Wolves sweep Suns

Channeling Ray Allen, George Gervin, and the last glory of the Showtime Lakers

I love Stathead diving and the concept of Scorigami, and the NBA playoffs are a great time for those passions to come together, along with my other habit of getting deep into YouTube sports archives. As the first-round series reach their conclusions, I’ll share notes here, starting with the Timberwolves’ sweep of the Suns.

We talked on our last NBA podcast about not fully buying the Wolves based on them dominating a flawed and mismatched Suns team, but Minnesota worked really hard to be as convincing as possible in dismantling the team that won last year’s offseason.

Game 1 - Minnesota 120, Phoenix 95: This was the biggest series-opening win in Timberwolves history, and tied for the fourth-biggest Game 1 loss the Suns ever had. Phoenix is now 1-4 in series where they lose the opener by 25-plus, the one win coming in the 1976 Western Conference finals against Golden State.

Game 2 - Minnesota 105, Phoenix 93: The second time this score has been recorded in a Game 2, the other being the Seattle SuperSonics in their five-game win over the Kings in 2005. Game 4 of that series was the Ray Allen show.

Game 3 - Minnesota 126, Phoenix 109: The only previous 126-109 playoff game was 41 years ago, when the Spurs beat the Nuggets in Game 2 of the Western semifinals, on their way to a five-game triumph, despite Denver’s best efforts to contain George Gervin.

Game 4 - Minnesota 122, Phoenix 116: There have been two 122-116 games in playoff history, and the Suns have lost them both. The other one came in Game 2 of the 1984 first round against the Trail Blazers. That time, the Suns were able to rally and win the best-of-five series, 3-2. Now, their season is over.

The Timberwolves, swept in three games by the 1997 Rockets and 2002 Mavericks before the first round expanded, are now 1-0 in four-game sweeps. The Suns suffered their first four-game sweep since the 1989 Western Conference finals against the Lakers, who then turned around and got swept themselves in the Finals by the Pistons.

“The last team to sweep the Suns wound up losing to the NBA champions” is in play as a fun fact for Nuggets fans going forward, just as soon as they finish off the Lakers…

Speaking of sweeps, the Rangers finished off the Capitals for their first since 2007, when they skunked the Atlanta Thrashers. The Rangers’ only other four-game sweeps, ever, were in the 1994 first round against the Islanders and the 1972 semifinals against Chicago.

That 1994 series was as sweep, and a pretty ugly one. The only time the Islanders led was in Game 4, and that one still wound up 5-2.