Timberwolves’ “Pettiness” Towards 30YO Suns Star Leaves Kendrick Perkins in Splits

How does a team with All-Stars Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal get swept? And that too at the hands of a team against which they won all three match-ups during the regular season. Not many would have expected the Minnesota Timberwolves to turn the tables this hard in the playoffs. Not only that, the Wolves’ social media team was up to the task as well and didn’t leave the chance to get in on the fun banter. And it seems like former NBA center Kendrick Perkins is all for it.

“I love the pettiness 🤣🤣🤣,” he replied to the Timberwolves’ recent post against Beal. Notably, Bleacher Report shared a post on X on April 27 quoting Beal ahead of Game 4. The 30-year-old had said he had never been swept in his career and he would be damned if that happened. This came when the Suns were down 3-0 against the Timberwolves in the first round of playoffs, facing the possibility of a sweep.

However, Game 4 did not end any differently for the Suns as they suffered a 116-122 loss. With this, the Timberwolves ousted the Suns from the playoffs with a sweep. But to add insult to injury, Minnesota’s official X account re-shared Bleacher Report’s post that included Beal’s quote on being clean swept. “first time for everything,” wrote the Timberwolves’ official page while re-sharing the BR post. This was when Kendrick Perkins came up with his reaction to the Timberwolves’ post.

The majority of the credit for this sweep goes to a superior defense and offense for which the Suns had no counter. The 4-0 victory coming for the Timberwolves with an average margin of 15.5 points is enough to testify to this.

What went wrong with the Phoenix Suns?

Notably, the Timberwolves’ defensive side includes players like 3x DPOY Rudy Gobert, who is a candidate for the Defensive Player of the Year award again. Anthony Edwards too has proved that he can be as skilled at defense as he is with his offense. Alongside contributions from Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker helped Minnesota effectively contain the Suns’ key players throughout the series.

In terms of offensive prowess as well, the Timberwolves had an edge over the Suns. Notably, Edwards concluded the series with an average of 31 points per game as compared to KD’s 26.7 PPG. Now, this may be the highest figure for points per game in the series from the Suns, but this is the third-lowest playoff scoring average of his career.

This reflects that Durant was not at his best against the Timberwolves. However, after this one-sided domination in the first round of the playoffs, it is to be seen if Minnesota can achieve similar success in upcoming rounds. They will face the winner of the Denver Nuggets vs Los Angeles Lakers series.