The 2023-24 NBA season is over for the Phoenix Suns. It came way too early than what most people expected this team would go, especially when Phoenix landed Bradley Beal via a trade last summer. The Minnesota Timberwolves needed just four games to discard Kevin Durant and the Suns, who are in for a long offseason that starts this Monday. With that said, let's take a look at some of the reasons why Phoenix lost, 122-116, at home in Game 4 of their first-round matchup versus the Timberwolves — while the wounds are still fresh.
No answer to the Anthony Edwards problem
The Suns-Timberwolves series began and ended with Phoenix finding no answer to the biggest thorn in its side AKA Anthony Edwards. The former No. 1 overall pick spent the entire series punishing the Suns' defense. There was Edwards' underwhelming offense in Game 2 in which he scored just 15 points, but outside of that, he was incredible. Edwards saved his best performance of the series for the finale, as he landed a deathblow to Phoenix's chances of at least winning a game in the first round by unloading 40 points in Game 4, shooting 13/23 from the field, including seven 3-pointers and a 7/10 showing from the foul line.
Edwards was always going to be tough to slow down for the Suns, but Phoenix didn't seem to put up the type of resistance against him that befits a do-or-die scenario. After getting his rhythm back with a 36-point explosion in Game 3, Edwards should have been covered much tighter by the Suns in Game 4. Instead, he got plenty of open looks, catching Phoenix's defense asleep multiple times and repeatedly blowing by defenders for easy incursions into the paint where he either found an open teammate via kickouts or scored a bucket himself.
In what was one of the most crucial moments of Game 4, Edwards cooked Bradley Beal's defense on his way to a monster throwdown.
Bradley Beal was nowhere to be found
Speaking of Beal, he's been a big target for frustrated Suns fans after his team's sweep at the hands of the Timberwolves. Much was expected from Beal in the series. After all, his arrival in The Valley in 2023 gave Phoenix's championship hype a tremendous boost. Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant were the trio that was supposed to give Suns opponents in the playoffs headaches — not the other way around. The former Florida Gators star struggled versus the Timberwolves. Whereas Edwards had his best game of the series in the finale, Beal had his worst when he was needed the most by Phoenix. In Game 4, Beal coughed up just nine points — four of which came in the fourth period.
Overall in the series, Beal, who earned $46.74 million in his first season with the Suns, mustered averages of 16.5 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.8 rebounds, while connecting on just 44.1 percent of his field goal attempts. Those weren't the numbers the Suns envisioned they'd get from him in the playoffs when they acquired him from the Washington Wizards.
Possession battle woes for the Suns
Another issue for the Suns in the Timberwolves series was the big gap between the number of shots taken. Minnesota attempted 85.5 field goal attempts per game in the first round, while Phoenix only launched an average of 75.8. The Suns were already 27th in the league back in the regular season with just 85.7 field goal attempts per game but that figure somehow got drastically reduced by nearly 10 shots in the playoffs. One major reason for that was the rebounding disparity. Minnesota averaged 46.3 rebounds in the series, while Phoenix only grabbed 32.5.
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