PHOENIX — For most of Thursday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves tried to win a basketball game against one of the best teams in the Western Conference playing 2-on-5.
In the fourth quarter, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns finally got a little help from their supporting cast. Combined it was just enough for the Wolves to pull out one of their most improbable wins of the season, 123-119 over Phoenix.
Towns and Edwards carried the Wolves most of the night and did the same to the finish with 41 and 42 points respectively. It was just the second time in Wolves history two teammates scored 40-plus points after Towns and Andrew Wiggins did it in 2017.
In the fourth quarter, they looked unstoppable at times playing off each other as the Wolves erased a 15-point second-half deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Towns, who had been struggling with his outside shooting, regained his form from three-point range (5-for-7) while nothing was going to get in Edwards' way on his drives to the basket.
The Wolves led 117-114 with 1 minute, 47 seconds remaining following a pair of Ricky Rubio free throws.
After a Chris Paul jumper, DeAndre Ayton fouled out as he sent Towns to the free-throw line and he hit both to put the Wolves ahead 119-116.
Following a pair of turnovers, Paul missed a three, and Juancho Hernangomez hit one with 39.9 seconds left.
A Jae Crowder putback pulled Phoenix within 120-118. Phoenix opted not to foul and sent three defenders at Edwards as he drove to the rim. Crowder fouled him, and Edwards hit one for a 121-118 lead.
The Wolves opted to foul Dario Saric with seven second remaining and he hit just one of two. Towns secured the rebound. On the other end Hernangomez got loose for a dunk on the ensuing inbound pass for a dunk to seal it.
Towns was a problem no matter who the Suns threw out there to guard him as the Wolves overcame an early deficit from the start. Edwards, who finished 15 of 31 shooting, hit a three and had a few easy buckets to get his night going, and that was just a warmup for what was to come.
The Wolves tightened the screws defensively and led 19-14 after Edwards hit a rarely-seen floater with 3 minutes, 44 seconds remaining in the quarter. The Wolves built a 25-19 lead following a Towns three and a pair of free throws from Naz Reid, as the two big men were on the floor together to close the quarter. But in the final minute the Wolves relinquished the lead on a Saric three and Devin Booker's buzzer-beating three.
The second quarter belonged to Edwards.
Edwards began by hitting from outside off the dribble, something he has struggled with this year, and even hit a three from about five feet behind the three-point line. Then came a few dunks as Edwards helped the Wolves stem the tide as their supporting cast struggled to get going. Towns and Edwards had 41 of the Wolves' 53 first-half points. Edwards had 15 alone in the second quarter to finish the first half with 22.
The Wolves' bench shot just 2-for-14 as Phoenix led 58-53 at halftime. The Suns surged ahead in the third as Booker had 34 by the end of the quarter, but Towns and Edwards were right there with him as each entered the 30s. The problem for the Wolves was there wasn't much else aside from them. The bench still struggled and was just 5-for-24 with a little over two minutes left in the third. Phoenix led by as many as 15 before carrying a 91-83 lead into the fourth.
The Wolves didn't fold against the team with the second-best winning percentage in the Western Conference entering the night and had the deficit to 96-90 in the opening minutes of the fourth, prompting a timeout from Suns coach Monty Williams.
Finally the bench, led by Naz Reid (10 points) and Hernangomez (14 points) got some shots to fall.
The Wolves took their first lead of the half on a three-point play from Edwards at 110-109, and again at 113-111 following a Towns three. Neither was going to let the Wolves lose.
