Wolves 120, Suns 117: Randle Wins it at the Buzzer

Julius Randle had his best game in a Timberwolves uniform, scoring 35 points including the game-winning shot at the buzzer

With an awful three-game losing streak snapped on Friday with the thrilling 130-126 overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings, the Minnesota Timberwolves took on the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.

Today’s game was the first matinee for the Wolves as the game tipped off at 2:30 PM CT. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch spoke about if there is a difference between preparing for a game during the day instead of at night.

“A little bit. We didn’t have a chance to get together for any kind of shoot around or morning meeting. We flew back from the West Coast so we just kinda gather a little bit earlier in the locker room.”

Similar to the Kings, who started both Damantas Sabonis and Alex Len, the Suns made a change to their starting lineup, playing both Mason Plumlee and Jusuf Nurkić at the beginning of the game.

The Timberwolves would get off to a rough start offensively, turning the ball over three times in the first five minutes, leading to a 17-7 Suns lead early in the game. Minnesota would also struggle to hit shots from beyond the arc, missing eight of their first ten attempts in the game.

The remainder of the quarter, the Timberwolves defense would be the issue as Phoenix would shoot 11-20 from the court including 5-9 on 3-pointers in the first quarter. There were multiple miscommunications between Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert, leading to easy points for the Suns.

After going down by as many as 16 points, Donte DiVincenzo found his shooting stroke early in the second quarter, hitting four 3-pointers to cut the Phoenix lead all the way down to three.

The Suns would build their lead back up to 13 points, largely on the back of some spectacular shot-making from Devin Booker, who finished the first half with 27 points on 9-14 shooting.

Randle would knock down a running 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Suns lead down to 64-54 at the intermission. Randle led the Wolves with 18 points on 6-9 shooting. Anthony Edwards finished the first half with just four points.

Edwards would finally begin to score in the third quarter, scoring 13 points in the third quarter including this steal and dunk.

The Wolves would cut the Phoenix lead to as little as one point before a pair of Suns offensive rebounds and a Royce O’Neal 3-pointer pushed the lead back to four where it would stand heading into the fourth quarter.

The final frame would start disastrously for the Wolves. After a missed free throw for the Suns, O’Neal swiped a rebound from Gobert leading to a Grayson Allen 3-pointer. After a miss from Naz Reid, Allen would hit another one from long range to quickly push their lead back up to 11.

The Wolves would fight back as they have done all season to push the Phoenix lead right back down to one, with Reid finally starting to heat up.

With just over six and a half minutes remaining in the game and the Wolves down by two points, the Minnesota offense would go scoreless for a more than three-minute stretch, allowing Phoenix to grow their lead to eight. During that stretch, the Wolves would miss all four of their shots and turn the ball over three times.

The Timberwolves would again fight right back, cutting the deficit to just one on this emphatic dunk by Jaden McDaniels.

The Wolves would briefly take the lead, their first of the game, on a jumper by Edwards before a 3-pointer by Allen gave the Suns a two-point lead. On the other end, two free throws by Edwards would tie the game with 46 seconds remaining.

The Wolves would a stop defensively, after two offensive rebounds for Phoenix, to give themselves the ball with 2.7 seconds left, setting up Randle to win the game at the buzzer 120-117.

Randle was outstanding all game for the Wolves, scoring 35 points, adding seven assists and four rebounds. Edwards had an efficient 24 points on 9-14 shooting along with six assists and four rebounds. Booker led the way for Phoenix with 44 points.

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Key Takeaways

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Randle’s Huge Game

When the Timberwolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle and DiVincenzo, many Wolves fans who despised the trade, not just because their favorite player was on their way to New York, but that Randle’s game was not their cup of tea, to say the least.

To start his Wolves career, his play has been up-and-down, but he has largely played well through these first 14 games of the season. Today, he announced himself to Wolves fans with 35 gigantic points and a shot that many will remember for a while.

On a night where Edwards was largely quiet offensively, Randle carried the team to victory, their second in a row since dropping two games in Portland earlier this week.

Randle spoke in the locker room after the game about what happened on the final play and if he felt like the shot was going to go in when he shot it, “For sure, for sure. I mean he couldn’t even get a contest on it because he fell down.”

Randle also talked about what goes into games into games where he can find success on the floor.

“ When I’m coming out and I’m aggressive from the start and not overthinking trying to manipulate the game with my passing or whatever it is, I know that stuff will come. I gotta be aggressive from the start and make plays getting it getting downhill and getting to my spots.”

Finch spoke glowingly of Randle in his postgame press conference, talking about the reasons why Randle can be so valuable down the stretch of close games.

“I love Julius, I always have. When I was with him in New Orleans I thought one thing he can really do is close games well because you get to his spots, you can draw fouls, he can make tough shots and he’s a good passer. So to have both him and Ant be able to put the ball in their hands is a huge advantage for us.”

Both Randle and Edwards have shown their value in clutch so far this season as the Wolves have been solid overall late in games this year with the game with the loss to the Miami Heat last week as the notable exception.

There are still seemingly countless areas the Wolves need to improve if they hope to reach their championship goals, but for now, this performance from Randle and the Wolves have given them a much-needed win against another Western Conference playoff team.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Booker’s 44-Point Performance

For the second straight game, an opposing player has scored 40 or more points with De’Aaron Fox scoring 60 points on Friday before Booker’s 44-point game today.

The Wolves threw many coverages at Booker, hoping to slow him down, but Phoenix was able to find quality offense most of the game going through their superstar shooting guard. Whether it was playing one-on-one coverage, or sending a second defender, Booker made the right play almost every time.

Finch talked after the game about Booker and other players having such huge scoring games against the Wolves.

[Booker] was awesome. Seems like we’re catching these guys that are super hot. We got took the ball out his hands in the last quarter to some effectiveness and then that becomes a scramble fly-around game. But we got real proud of our guys.”

Players of Booker’s caliber can often have scoring nights like this no matter what sort of defense you throw at them. While there were defensive breakdowns and times, the Wolves were able to slow down Booker enough in the final quarter to give their offense some time to get going.

With the Wolves off the next three days, the Wolves will have a chance to regroup and find out how to improve their defense moving forward. Gobert talked in the locker room about what they could do to improve on that end of the floor.

“I think, first of all, let’s get fresh. Let’s recharge. And then, yeah, I think we’ve got to refocus on the little details. Defensive rebound. I thought when we lock in we play great, but there’s too many moments when we just lose focus on being on the same page, all five guys, trusting what we do.”

The Timberwolves will get a break from these all-world scorers as their next matchup is against the league-worst Toronto Raptors, but it is only a break of a single game as after that they head to Boston to play Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics.

The game against the Celtics will be a great barometer for this Minnesota defense that has struggled to contain All-Star players and role players alike. The Celtics have plenty of each of those categories so the Wolves will have to play at the top of their game if they hope to beat Boston at TD Garden next Sunday.

Slow Day Game Start for Edwards

Edwards has often struggled with early game times in his career and that was no different for today’s 2:30 PM CT tip time. Ant only had four points at halftime of the game, taking only five shots.

The lack of aggressive play was especially notable when compared to Booker who outscored Edwards by 23 points in the first half. After the game, Ant talked about where the improvement came in the second half for both himself and the team.

“I don’t think it was like an improvement. I think everybody was fucking sleepy out there. It came for real. Which is, I’m not making an excuse, I’m just saying, I didn’t even see it in the early game.”

Ant, as he always, tells it exactly like it is. There were many lackadaisical possessions early in the game before the team was able to find a rhythm. Edwards doesn’t shy away from blame in this area, which is always a good trait to have as the superstar of the team.

The issue is that slow starts and stretches of games have too often become the story for the Wolves this season with Edwards often being one of the main culprits during these stretches.

Whether it has been against inferior opponents or games like tonight where the opposing team doesn’t have their usual complement of starts, Ant often has a different level of focus and energy for big games that are not present on games like today where his childhood idol Kevin Durant is not in the lineup.

Edwards saying all the right things in terms of effort and focus is great and bodes well for future games, but eventually, as the leader of this team, Ant will need to be the one to break the Wolves out of the doldrums of their slow starts himself.

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Up Next

The Timberwolves head back on the road, this time they head out east for a pair of matchups in the Eastern time zone. The first comes on Thursday, November 21 against the struggling Raptors who have started the season 2-12. The game begins at 6:30 PM CT, airing on FanDuel Sports Network North.

After that, they head to Beantown for a matchup with the reigning champion Celtics on Sunday. That game, like today, will tip off at 2:30 PM CT.

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Game Highlights