The Timberwolves, who have made great progress this season, under the leadership of the big three Towns, Edwards and Russell, finally saw the hope of reaching the playoffs, but now they are still on the fringes of the playoffs in the Western Conference standings, and they must play better if they want to get their wish, in this back-to-back game, the Timberwolves ushered in a devil schedule, the last game against the second-place Warriors in the West, the two sides fought to the end, the Warriors relied on the bravery of the splash brothers Curry and Klay Thompson to play to the end, In this game, the Timberwolves went to Phoenix to challenge the Western Conference leaders, although the latter lacked a number of core players such as Ayton, McGee, Crowder, Payne and Saric, but after the game began, the Suns still firmly grasped the initiative of the game, maintained a score lead, and finally defeated the Timberwolves 134-124, and they continued to lead the Western Conference table with nine consecutive wins!
Today's Timberwolves, the big three is their core combat strength, but in the last game, Russell's accidental injury, so that their competitiveness has declined to a certain extent, but the excellent play of other role players, very good to fill the gap left by Russell's absence, especially the substitute Beasley is even more hot, cutting 26 points out of 4 of 10 from outside the three-point line.
And Towns and Edwards are also unwilling in the game, both played a good personal performance, of which Towns cut 23 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists of the comprehensive personal data, and Edwards let the fans see his talent and ability to organize the offense, the first 37.3 minutes, 20 shots hit 9 goals, contributed 27 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists and 4 steals of the two double data, played a good overall basketball, It's the root cause of the Timberwolves' ability to fight the Suns to the last minute despite fatigue and core injuries.
Although the overallity of the Timberwolves in this game has greatly exceeded the expectations of fans, but there is still a significant gap compared with the Suns led by Paul, in this game Paul only shot 9 times in the 37.1 minutes of his game, he easily contributed 21 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists, 1 steal and 1 block triple-double data, led by his pass, the Suns have 36 assists from teammates in 43 sports goals. As many as seven players scored in double figures.
Booker and Johnson became Paul's double guns, of which Booker cut 29 points, 3 rebounds and 9 assists, while Johnson was hot on three points, cutting 23 points on 5-of-9 shooting, especially when the score was constantly approaching after the Timberwolves in the final quarter, Johnson's key three-pointer stabilized the Suns.
If last season's performance of the Suns was a blockbuster, this season's team led by Paul has made everyone see their terrible stability, and it is expected that Ayton can return to the field as soon as possible, help the team to lock in the first place in the West, and strive to let the Suns have a relatively easy schedule in the playoffs, as well as home advantage, which are conducive to protecting Paul and allowing him to have more physical strength to help the team in more critical games!