Game Time: 8:00 PM ET, Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 

Venue:  Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  Suns -1.5; O/U 235

Fanduel:  Spread:  Suns -2; O/U 234.5

BetMGM:  Spread:  Suns -1.5; O/U 234.5

Suns: 58-14, 1st place Western Conference

Timberwolves: 42-31, 7th place Western Conference

An NBA Western Conference matchup between an expected great team and a surprisingly relevant team.  It doesn’t get much better than this for your Tuesday night entertainment.  The Phoenix Suns announced their arrival on the scene in the bubble.  They were a young team full of athletes that were invited into the bubble with little chance of making anything happen.  They proceeded to run the table through the first 7 games.  The following season (2021) the Suns added PG Chris Paul to the roster and the result was like pouring gas on a campfire. The Suns fully turned the corner and have been real Finals contenders since.  This team is firmly in the West’s #1 spot.  PG Chris Paul went down with a thumb injury and has not played since the last game before the all-star break.  As worried as the Sun’s fans were… they should not have been.  The numbers said that they needed to win at a .500 clip to hold onto their top spot over the last month… What they have done is win at an .800 rate and increased their lead!  This is a good team!  Yes, they need CP3 to shine in the playoffs and potential Finals… but they will be fine until he returns.  They are on a 5-game winning streak!  They can lean on SG Devin Booker or C Deandre Ayton or SF Mikal Bridges to get through any rough patches that they might hit.  The Minnesota Timberwolves on the other hand have always been a bad team… a trash franchise really.  A smoldering dumpster fire of constant disappointment.  That all changed when the T-Wolves drafted SG Anthony Edwards #1 overall in 2020.  Anthony Edwards is an uber athlete that puts in 21.1 ppg with 4.7 rpg, and 3.7 apg… and as good as he is Edwards doesn’t lead the T-Wolves in any statistical category except steals.  The team’s long time star has been Center Karl-Anthony Towns.. Who has been badly underutilized his whole career!  Karl-Anthony won the 3-point shooting contest this year and with a recent 50 point game is highlighting that the T-Wol;ves front office has no idea what to do with him!  Karl needs to be playing PF next to another 7-footer that plays Center.  Imagine the league’s best shooting big man is being wasted while banging under the basket… He should be drifting for threes and crashing back to the basket for rebounds.  If he played alongside a legit 7-footer the “twin towers” approach would make life easier on SG D’Angelo Russell who could dish to Karl at the arc instead of playing hero ball all alone at the top of the key.

The Phoenix Suns have won 8 of their last ten games.  They are on a five-game winning streak.  They went 5-5 ATS over the last ten games… although life without CP3 on the court may have been an adjustment because they went 1-4 ATS in the first five games without Chis… and now 4-1 ATS in the second five games without Chris.  The wins may be a bit suspect of late as they came against the Sacramento Kings, the Chicago Bulls, the Houston Rockets, the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Los Angeles Lakers?... Yet that is the exact reason we have a point spread!  Phoenix has been covering of late.  During the last ten games, Phoenix hit 7 Overs and 3 Unders.  Phoenix can score.  Also in two of those three unders the Suns top flight defense held the opponent to under 100 points a rarity in today’s NBA.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have won 8 of their last ten games.  They went 8-2 ATS during that stretch.  C Karl-Anthony Towns came back from the all-star weekend seemingly a new man!  He won the 3-point shooting contest and is demonstrating how easily he can score the ball… he also is playing WITH SG/SF Anthony Edwards better… in the beginning of the season it looked like the two studs were taking turns… (I even wrote about how Karl should be traded and the team should be built around Anthony)…. Now the two are playing wonderfully together.  They lost their last games against the Dallas Mavericks as the Mavericks spread the ball around to six guys scoring 15 pts or more…. The Timber Wolves were in it the whole time though losing by just 2 points.

Power Sports is REALLY humming along now; an 11-3 overall record the L3 days including a PERFECT 7-0 with totals! Six of those seven totals have cashed by DOUBLE DIGITS! In NBA, Power has won SIX STRAIGHT totals - ALL of them by double digits! Last night he had the Under in MIN-DAL (did lose the side by 2 pts). Time to win ANOTHER total! What are you waiting for? Get Powers Sports' picks!   You can discover the best  picks right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers. NCAAF, NFL, MLB, college football… get positive value from all your bets! Expert picks!  Fun fact… winning a wager is much better than making a wager!

Phoenix is 58-14 on the season, but 39-33 ATS. They have logged 37 Overs, 34 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 28-6 in road games.  The best road record in the league.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are 42-31 on the season, but 40-31-2 ATS.  They have notched 43 Overs and 33 Unders.  They are 24-12 in home games winning at a 2 to 1 ratio.

Phoenix is 4th in scoring with 114.9 ppg, 8th in rebounds with 45.6 per game, and 2nd in AST/TO ratio with 2.1.  On defense they rank 6th while holding opponents to 106.5 ppg.

The Timberwolves are 1st in scoring with 115.4 ppg, 14th in rebounds with 44.7 per game, and 14th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 20th while allowing 112 ppg.  It can not be overstated how easily they have scored the ball this season.  They are a bad defensive team WITH Patrick Beverley playing great defense… their recipe for wins is simply to outscore at the other spots.

Our prediction for Wednesday, March 23rd is…. Suns 118 - Timberwolves 116

This will be a close one.  DeAndre Ayton going head to head with Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges playing defense on Anthony Edwards will create some stunning head to head battles.  The spot where the Suns will outclass the Wolves however is at Shooting guard where Devin Booker gets to go off versus the sloppy, reaching defense of D'Angelo Russell.  This has all the makings of an OVER.

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Phoenix is 11-3 ATS when the line is +3 to -3 this season.
Phoenix is 13-3 ATRS after a win of 6 points or less this season
Minnesota is 17-4 ATS when revenging a road loss this season.
The Last 3 games between these teams played at Minnesota have gone UNDER.

Suns: PG Chris Paul (thumb) Quest ** PF Cam Johnson (quad) Out ** PG Cameron Payne (ill) Quest

T-Wolves: SF Jayden McDaniels (ankle) Out 

Suns: SF Mikal Bridges, PF Jae Crowder, C Deandre Ayton, SG Devin Booker, PG Elfrid Payton

T-Wolves: SF Anthony Edwards, PF Jarred Vanderbilt,. C Karl-Anthony Towns, SG D’Angelo Russell, PG Patrick Beverley

Suns: Monty Williams

T-Wolves: Chris Finch