Timberwolves Wrap: Suns sink Wolves in Phoenix

It was a tough night in Phoenix for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who fell to a struggling Suns team.

Desperate for a bounce-back win after Wednesday night’s blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Timberwolves slipped up again, losing on the road 118-110 to the Phoenix Suns.

The Wolves looked comfortable at times during the game but faltered late, losing what looked like an easily winnable game heading into it.

The game started out in sloppy fashion for the Wolves, who started off ice cold, missing their first five shots and a pair of free throws. The cold shooting hurt the Wolves early on, who struggled to stop T.J. Warren and Devin Booker‘s impact with the pair combining for 15 first quarter points. Despite the shaky-at-times defensive play and the 39 percent shooting from the field, a late 14-2 run helped the Timberwolves finish the quarter leading the Suns by a score of 28-19.

The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair to begin with, as both teams continued to clank shots. Phoenix was the team to break the cycle, as they brought it back within two points late in the quarter, The Timberwolves can thank the free throw line for helping them hang in this first half, the Timberwolves hitting 15 more freebies than the Suns.

The first half finished with Minnesota clinging to a 60-56 lead, with Andrew Wiggins and Devin Booker dueling it out with 17 and 13 points a piece,  at the break, and one huge Karl-Anthony Towns block.

The shooting struggles continued for the Timberwolves in the third, as the Suns quickly hit the lead with Marquese Chriss burying multiple long balls and some quick transition points for Phoenix.

Nothing was falling for the Wolves, who were shooting a tick over 36 percent from the field during what was quickly becoming a horrendous third quarter. Phoenix was inspired though, as Booker and Warren continued to dominate, pushing Phoenix’s lead to eight with just over four minutes left in the third period, before an infuriated Tom Thibodeau called another quick timeout.

Whatever Thibs said must have worked, because the Timberwolves quickly burst out of the timeout with a 13-1 run on the back of Jimmy Butler, somehow managing to hang on to a 88-85 lead at the last break.

As Jeff Teague, who had struggled badly early in this game, continued to sit on the bench, Tyus Jones and Karl-Anthony Towns led a much more inspired start to the last quarter, pushing the lead quickly out to seven points early on.

Like it had been all night, however, the lead didn’t last long, as the Suns fired back rapidly, taking the lead at 95-94 with just under eight minutes remaining in the game.

Again, the Wolves stormed out of a frustrated Thibodeau timeout, With Jimmy Butler’s defensive greatness shining on multiple plays before the struggling Jeff Teague nailed a huge 3-pointer to swing momentum back in the Wolves favor.

With this game headed down to the wire, it was Devin Booker who ripped the Timberwolves heart out as he hammered the remaining nails in to Minnesota’s coffin, helping the Suns to a 14-0 run in the final minutes of the game.

It was a frustrating last frame for the Wolves, whose missed opportunities severely costed them down the stretch. The Suns ended their five-game losing streak, and the Wolves dropped their second consecutive game.

Tweet of the Night

Key Takeaways

• The Timberwolves looked as cold as they have all year on offense tonight, but still scored points with their free throw dominance.
• Andrew Wiggins again looked like he has taken major strides defensively, finishing with two steals and a number of hustle plays.
• Jimmy Butler was clearly more aggressive offensively, though he still struggled with his shot finishing 5-17 from the field. His attacking mentality did help him go 14-16 from the line, however.
• The Suns once again exploited the Timberwolves’ porous transition defense, particularly in the third quarter, finishing with 11 fast break points.
• Devin Booker is as dangerous as advertised, and killed the Wolves everywhere offensively tonight.
• The absence of Gorgui Dieng and Cole Aldrich clearly hurt the Wolves tonight, who had a lean frontcourt rotation.
• Tyus Jones easily out-performed Jeff Teague this game, which lead to some extended minutes for Jones.
• The fourth quarter collapses continue to haunt the Wolves.
• With the 110 points tonight, the Wolves post a franchise record 11th game with 100 or more points in a row.

Star of the Night

Devin Booker: 35 points (13-22 FG, 5-9 3P, 4-5 FT), 9 rebounds, 5 assists

Booker was electric tonight and came up huge down the stretch for the Suns, burying almost everything he looked at for the night. It was another great glimpse in to Booker’s oozing potential. Also notable for the Suns: T.J. Warren scored 35 points on 15-of-22 shooting.

Notable Box Score Lines

Karl-Anthony Towns: 17 points ( 8-19 FG, 1-5 3P) 12 rebounds , 2 assists, 2 blocks

Andrew Wiggins: 27 points (10-22 FG, 1-3 3P, 6-7 FT), 1 rebound, 2 steals

Jimmy Butler: 25 points ( 5-17 FG, 1-3 3P, 14-16 FT), 7 rebounds, 5 assists

Next: Top-5 dunks by Andrew Wiggins

Who’s up next?

The Minnesota Timberwolves will travel to Salt Lake City to face Utah on Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Central Time.