The No. 6 Phoenix Suns couldn’t bounce back on Tuesday night, falling to the No. 3 Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-93.
That defeat puts Phoenix in the dreaded 0-2 hole moving forward and oddsmakers do not have high hopes for the Suns making a lot of noise in a loaded Western Conference Playoff bracket.
Phoenix returns to the desert this weekend for two games against the Timberwolves in an attempt to get right, but the Suns’ odds of winning the franchise’s first NBA Championship have plummeted after a slow start in the first round.
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Suns now a massive longshot to win NBA Finals
Phoenix had hype going into the postseason with a star-studded lineup that includes Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker. Prior to the start of the playoffs, the Suns and their first-round opponent Timberwolves had the same NBA Championship odds at +1900.
That’s changed drastically after back-to-back losses to start the series. As of Wednesday morning, the Suns now have the sixth-worst NBA Championship odds on the board at +6000, which is an implied probability of just 1.64% that Phoenix will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy in early June.
Phoenix has dropped to +1600, according to FanDuel, to win the Western Conference and reach the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons. That’s an implied probability of just 5.88%.
Suns a small favorite in must-win Game 3
Climbing out of a 2-0 hole in a 7-game series is extremely difficult and history backs it up. Only 33 out of 447 teams to go down 2-0 in an NBA playoff series have come back to win it.
That’s only a 7.4% rate, but Phoenix has a much higher implied probability of a comeback (22.22%) according to its current price on FanDuel of winning the series (+350). The Timberwolves are -480 to advance.
The first step to the comeback is a must-win Game 3 on Friday night at Footprint Center. Per FanDuel, the Suns are a 4-point home favorite over the Timberwolves in that contest. Phoenix is just 16-24-1 ATS at home this season and 17-17 ATS following a loss. Minnesota is just 8-9 ATS as a road underdog.
Game odds update periodically and are subject to change.