Timberwolves Wrap: Wolves fall apart, lose to Suns

The Timberwolves led for much of the night before a rough second half and poor play down the stretch doomed them to a loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns.

The Timberwolves have squandered yet another opportunity to bank a win against a deeply inferior opponent — and two of those losses have come in the three games they’ve played against the now-10-21 Suns.

The Wolves were wearing their bright green (aurora green, actually) Statement jerseys for the first time. They led by three points at the end of the first quarter and after building a lead that reached 15 points in the second frame, Minnesota took an eight-point advantage to halftime.

The third quarter was a struggle, and the Wolves allowed the Suns to pull to within four points heading to the fourth. While the early stages of the game featured the Wolves piling up steals and squandering opportunities on the offensive end of the floor when they should have been taking advantage of the Suns’ sloppy play, the latter portion of the contest saw Minnesota revert back to their poor defensive ways.

Phoenix rained threes on the Wolves throughout the second half. The Wolves actually fell behind by five points with just over four minutes remaining on the clock in the final frame. After a couple of empty possessions, a hobbled Jimmy Butler, who missed a stretch in the fourth quarter to go back to the locker room and receive treatment on what appeared to be an injured back, stole a pass and converted an easy dunk in transition.

Then, another stop and a Jeff Teague layup, followed by another stop and a dunk from Taj Gibson on a great pass from Teague. After a pair of free throws from T.J. Warren and a tip-in from Butler, the home team led by one with 30 seconds remaining.

The Suns passed the ball around the perimeter as the shot clock wound down. Isaiah Canaan was forced to take a tough, contested 3-pointer from the left wing, but Teague got too close to the Suns guard and made contact with his body as the shot clock expired. The official signaled a foul, followed by a shot clock violation, but only the violation was announced in the arena while the officials went to the monitor to review the play.

Ultimately, the contact was deemed to have occurred with 0.2 seconds on the shot clock, and Canaan was given three free throws to give the Suns a two-point lead with six seconds remaining on the game clock.

After a timeout, Butler was blocked at the rim and the ball went out of bounds with 1.7 seconds left. On the inbounds play, Butler was forced into a tough 18-footer from looked to be almost behind the backboard. It was on line but rimmed out as the buzzer sounded, and the Wolves were saddled with another disappointing loss.

Tweets of the Night

Key Takeaways

• The Timberwolves looked great overall early in the game. The defense was active and the offense was flowing, with each starter getting their shots up.
• As I’d mentioned in the game preview, the Suns’ one way to find a victory in this one was to rain a bevy of threes down on the Wolves. Indeed, the Wolves’ frontcourt could not stop Canaan and Troy Daniels.
• This meant that despite 23 turnovers to the Wolves six, the Suns came away with a win. Oh, and they missed their final seven field goal attempts of the game and still won.
• One of the Wolves’ biggest issues in crunch time has been a stagnant offense, but that wasn’t a problem in this one. The lack of defense was the main culprit, and by the end of the night, Phoenix shot 11-of-24 (45.8 percent) from beyond the arc.
• Butler and Andrew Wiggins combined to shoot just 10-of-34 from the field.

Player of the Game

Troy Daniels: 17 points (5-8 FG, 4-6 3P, 3-3 FT), one rebound, 2 turnovers

The Suns had three starters score four points or less, and were led by Daniels, Canaan (15 points), and Dragan Bender (17 points) off the bench.

Daniels, the former Timberwolf, was nearly unstoppable. He made four threes and was fouled on another attempt, draining all three free throws in the fourth quarter. It got to the point where the threat of Daniels touching the ball outside the arc sent multiple Wolves defenders flying towards him, ultimately throwing their defensive rotation out of wack. The scramble often led to open shots for other Suns players — namely, Bender, who made five of his eight 3-point attempts.

Notable Box Score Lines

• Karl-Anthony Towns: 28 points (7-17 FG, 4-7 3P, 10-12 FT), 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, one block, one turnover
• Andrew Wiggins: 13 points (5-16 FG, 1-6 3P, 2-4 FT), 3 steals, one rebound, one assist, one block, 2 turnovers
• Jeff Teague: 17 points (8-14 FG, 1-3 3P, 0-1 FT), 8 assists, 3 blocks, one steal, one rebound, zero turnovers
• Taj Gibson: 18 points (8-14 FG, 2-2 FT), 10 rebounds, one assist, 2 blocks
• Jimmy Butler: 10 points (5-18 FG, 0-3 3P), 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, one turnover

Towns was solid all night long. The Suns kept leaving him open beyond the arc and KAT made them pay, eventually using his made threes to set up a pump-fake that kept the Phoenix big men on their toes.

Wiggins and Butler were extremely inefficient but kept chucking; at least they both came away with three steals and Butler was active on the glass. Teague and Gibson, on the other hand, were both fantastic once again.

Next: An examination of Andrew Wiggins' shooting woes

What’s Next?

The Timberwolves will look to improve to 2-2 and wrap their four-game homestand with a win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at 7 p.m. Central Time.