PHOENIX – After the adrenaline rush that was the Minnesota Timberwolves' win over Phoenix on Thursday, a night that featured dual 40-point performances from Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Suns got their chance at revenge just 24 hours later.
One thing Phoenix wasn't going to do Friday night was let Edwards torch them the way he did Thursday, and if the Wolves were going to win, it was going to have to be more of a team effort than it was Friday.
Both teams reverted to form Friday as Phoenix clapped back at the Wolves with a 113-101 victory.
A night after going for 42 points Edwards had 11 points and 10 rebounds on 4 of 18 shooting. Such is the life of being a 19-year-old rookie in the NBA. Towns and Ricky Rubio did their best to pick up the slack with 24 and 21 respectively, but the Suns got contributions up and down the roster with Chris Paul scoring 20 points to go with nine assists and Devin Booker adding 16.
The Wolves struggled to get offensive contributions outside of Towns, Edwards and Rubio with Jaylen Nowell (14 points) the only other player to hit double digits.
After the first quarter featured a slow start offensively for each team on Thursday, points weren't hard to come by in the first six minutes as the Wolves opened a 20-17 lead. Coach Chris Finch made tweaks to his starting lineup, replacing Jarred Vanderbilt with Jaden McDaniels and Jake Layman with Josh Okogie.
Offense was slow to come by the rest of the quarter for the Wolves as they scored just nine in the final six minutes of the first quarter. With an all-bench unit closing out the quarter the Wolves trailed Phoenix 34-29 at the end of the first quarter.
Suns coach Monty Williams had seen about all he could handle out of the officiating crew in the second and decided he would make an early exit after getting ejected with 7 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the first half.
At the time, the Wolves were making a run with Towns and Edwards back on the floor together and had chopped an eight-point lead down to one.
If Williams was seeking to fire up his team, it seemed to work, as over the next stretch Phoenix went on a 14-0 run for a 60-47 Suns lead.
The Suns made it their mission to not let Edwards have anything easy, making sure he had multiple bodies around him at all times and making his path to the basket harder than it was Thursday. It was another slow night for the Wolves bench, which had just 10 points in the first half compared to 28 for the Suns.
Phoenix got contributions off the bench from Langston Galloway, who had 11 in the first half.
The Wolves got a bounce coming out of the locker room with a 15-2 run. Okogie hustled his way around the floor to draw two offensive fouls and race down to impede a Booker breakaway. The latter led to a three at the other end. Okogie would repeat that later in the quarter on another Booker break.
The run succeeded in tightening the game through most of the period, but Phoenix was able to corral the lead 83-78 headed into the fourth thanks to a 9-2 run over the last 3:18.
Unfortunately for the Wolves that carried over to the fourth, as Phoenix raced out to an 11-3 run and matched its largest lead of the game 94-81, prompting Finch to call a timeout.
The Wolves' youthful bench, which has been a bright spot at times given the development of players like Naz Reid and Nowell, just didn't quite have it to keep up with the Suns without Edwards and Towns on the floor.
After that run, Towns and Edwards reentered the game, but Phoenix kept rolling and the Wolves didn't have the answers, unlike Thursday.
