3 reasons the Suns will beat the Timberwolves in the playoffs

It took the Phoenix Suns all 82 games of their regular season schedule, but they somehow managed to avoid the play-in tournament and secure the sixth seed in the playoffs. An outcome that had looked unthinkable as recently as a week ago, but which once again served to highlight just how bizarre their season was.

Every franchise goes through ups and downs over the course of a long campaign - but in the case of this Suns team - the highs were high and the drops even worse. Which is why the Suns enter the postseason as perhaps the greatest unknown in either conference, because the potential to go on a run still exists.

Their first round matchup pits them against the third seed Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Suns should be quietly confident they can cause an upset in this series.

Make no mistake, the Timberwolves had much the better regular season, in the hunt for the top seed out West until the very end. They also possess a budding superstar in Anthony Edwards who may just be about to have his playoff coming out party against the Suns. It would not be a surprise at all to see this happen.

The Timberwolves just got big man Karl-Anthony Towns back from injury too - and alongside center Rudy Gobert - that duo can and will pose the Suns problems. Yet it could have been so much worse, with a date against the defending champion Denver Nuggets and an Oklahoma City Thunder outfit that give them big problems avoided for now. This is why the Suns will win this series, in six.

3. Bradley Beal figured it out

It took essentially all of the regular season, but Bradley Beal in the last few weeks has finally figured out how to have the biggest impact with this group. The fact he struggled with injuries for the first-half of the campaign did not help, but recent wins against the Sacramento Kings and Timberwolves should have head coach Frank Vogel feeling much better about his starting five.

For a while there it felt like Beal - as is so often the case with stars who slip down the pecking order - was trying too hard to stay in his lane. Spot up in the corner while Devin Booker and Kevin Durant did most of the heavy lifting on the offensive end. Where the change has come in recent weeks then, is with Beal still existing within the flow of the team, but knowing how and when to take over more.

The strip of De'Aaron Fox of the Kings was also an example of how Beal can and will have a bigger impact on the defensive end in the series versus the Timberwolves. Coach Vogel will surely put him on Edwards for stretches, while he poses a problem for the bigger Timberwolves on the other end. If Gobert or Towns take Durant, and the other sticks with Jusuf Nurkic, that leaves Booker and Beal.

Booker will always draw the tougher defensive assignment, so do not be surprised when Beal goes for 35 in one of these games. The Suns had the toughest remaining schedule to finish the season, yet in the month of April Beal has put up 21 points and 4.5 assists, while shooting an absurd 69.4 percent from deep on just over three attempts per game. Beal can tilt the series in the Suns' favor.

2. The Timberwolves aren't ready

The Timberwolves and Thunder have both had wonderful regular seasons, and they made the Western Conference really interesting in the process. In fact the emergence of both is part of the reason the Suns struggled for so long. The conference is so good, and young upstarts ahead of schedule disrupted the predicted order of things.

Which is why the Suns will ultimately see off the Timberwolves in this series. Edwards is going to be one of the top five players in the league - perhaps as soon as next season - but he's not quite there yet. For all of Gobert's defensive ability, and we know how good he is at protecting the rim, he has been played off the court by opponents before while he was with the Utah Jazz.

Naz Reid might end up being the problem that the Suns can't solve, but an old Mike Conley and guys like Kyle Anderson and Luka Garza aren't exactly a nightmare scenario here. Jaden McDaniels is defensively excellent, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker is right there with him, and Jordan McLaughlin will offer some nice minutes off the bench.

But Booker has been to the NBA Finals, and Durant is a multiple-time champion and both league and finals MVP. They know what it takes to close out close games - and although we didn't see it during the regular season nearly enough - the Suns have the kind of roster that is built for the postseason. The Timberwolves' time will come, it's just not going to be against this Suns team on an upswing.

1. The Suns own the season series

The Timberwolves finished the season as the best defensive team in the league, with a rating of 108.4. They are capable of shutting down opponents of all shapes and sizes, and proved it throughout the long winter months. Yet the Suns went an impressive 3-0 versus the Timberwolves this season.

That first win came all the way back in November, and a lot has changed for both teams since then. But the Suns did also win the other two games to close out their season as part of that toughest schedule run. Two of their last six games were versus the Timberwolves, including their final game on Sunday that they had to win.

In fact the Suns won each of these games by an average of 15.6 points, a massive margin when you consider that aforementioned defensive rating for the Timberwolves. On top of that, Edwards did not have a good game in that final matchup. Rather than take over like many expected him to, he finished with a paltry 13 points in a team-high 35 minutes of action.

So when you consider how inconsistent the Suns were during the regular season, and they still managed to comfortably beat the Timberwolves three times, it does not bode well for them in a series. The slower nature of the games will also suit the Suns, who may not even have to contain Edwards at his best, while scoring at a level most couldn't versus the Timberwolves.