Timberwolves Wrap: Wire-to-wire win over Suns in Phoenix

The Timberwolves won their third straight game with a wire-to-wire win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, led by 32 points from Jimmy Butler.

The Timberwolves will enter their Christmas Day showdown on national television carrying a three-game win streak.

After last Saturday night’s home loss to the Phoenix Suns, the Wolves defeated the Portland Trail Blazers by a single point on Monday and the Nuggets by eight in Denver on Wednesday. After a pair of off days, the Wolves headed to Phoenix to close out this year’s four-game series with the Suns. After losing two of the first three, Minnesota earned a split with a win.

The Timberwolves never trailed in this one, but led by as many as 22 points and 21 at halftime before Phoenix whittled the lead down to just two late in the third quarter. But a couple of big runs by the visitors built the lead back up and the Wolves largely coasted to the win down the stretch.

The Wolves were led by Jimmy Butler, who scored 32 points and shot 12-of-13 from the free throw line. Outside of some early foul trouble, Andrew Wiggins had somewhat of a bounce-back game, scoring 17 points on 8-of-17 shooting with four rebounds and just two turnovers. Karl-Anthony Towns was relatively quiet, notching just 16 points on only 10 shots but grabbed 14 boards.

The Wolves’ scoring attach was balanced, with six players reaching double figures including Gorgui Dieng and Jamal Crawford off the bench. The Suns shot just 11-for-32 (34.4 percent) from beyond the arc, which was a far cry from their flame-throwing ways of a week ago.

Tweet of the Night

Key Takeaways

• The Timberwolves struggled with the Suns in four games this year. And in an odd schedule quirk, they’re done with Phoenix before Christmas.
• Another big halftime lead for the Wolves over the Suns led to yet another big third quarter run from Jay Triano’s bunch. Because of their run, all Wolves starters except for Towns finished the game with a negative plus-minus while all four bench players that saw action were well into the positive in that category.
• Marcus Georges-Hunt had a productive five-plus minute stretch in the first half, spelling Jimmy Butler but bringing a necessary physicality to the game.
• While the Wolves have won three straight games, they’re still only two games above Oklahoma City, who has won four straight. In fact, all teams seeded No. 3 through No. 8 in the Western Conference won on either Friday or Saturday night, so the Wolves haven’t improved their overall standing much this week.

Player of the Game

Jimmy Butler: 32 points (10-19 FG, 0-3 3P, 12-13 FT), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, one block

Once again, Minnesota’s best offense was Butler reaching the free throw line. It was another well-rounded game from Jimmy Buckets as well, and he only ended up with a single turnover 38 minutes. While his workload has overall diminished slightly over the last couple of weeks, don’t be surprised if Georges-Hunt’s strong stints lead to more playing time and more frequent rests for Butler.

Notable Box Score Lines

• Karl-Anthony Towns: 16 points (6-10 FG, 1-2 3P, 3-4 FT), 14 rebounds, 2 blocks, one assist, one steal, 3 turnovers
• Jeff Teague: 12 points (5-9 FG, 0-1 3P, 2-2 FT), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 turnovers
• Andrew Wiggins: 17 points (8-17 FG, 1-2 3P), 4 rebounds, one steal, 2 turnovers
• Gorgui Dieng: 10 points (2-6 FG, 2-2 3P, 4-4 FT), 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, one steal

Next: 5 reasons to not worry about the Timberwolves

What’s Next?

The Timberwolves’ record now stands at 20-13 — a 50-win pace. Next, they’ll play the finale of the Christmas Day slate with a 9:30 p.m. CT showdown against the Los Angeles Lakers on TNT.