MINNEAPOLIS _ Don't waste time wondering if it should have been this hard, this difficult, this protracted.
Locked in a back-and-forth game with last-place Phoenix at Target Center on Sunday, Derrick Rose hit an 18-foot jumper with 0.6 seconds left in the game, breaking a tie and sending the Timberwolves to a 116-114 victory.
Rose scored 31 points, 29 in the second half, a bookend to Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 30 points, 28 in the first half.
Rose hit one of two free throws with 30.5 seconds left to tie the score at 114. Out of a time out, Suns star Devin Booker got past Andrew Wiggins. But Ty Gibson caused a turnover, giving the Wolves the ball, out of a time out, with 23.6 seconds left.
Rose got the ball off the in-bounds, dribbled down the clock, rose and canned the shot over Mikal Bridges for the win, improving the Wolves' record to 22-24.
Andrew Wiggins scored 10.
Phoenix was playing on back-to-back nights, finishing a four-game road trip and was without their second-best player. And yet the Suns led much of the night, stubbornly staying in the game.
T.J. Warren scored 21 points for the Suns (11-37). Booker scored 18 and Dragan Bender had a season-high 12.
The Wolves will face the Suns again on Tuesday in Phoenix.
