Wolves finally manage to hold off Suns

PHOENIX – The Timberwolves said goodbye already this season and good riddance to the Phoenix Suns with Saturday night’s 115-106 victory at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

The two teams ended their four-game season series with two days still remaining before Christmas with a careening game in which the Wolves led by as many as 22 points in the first half before the Suns twice pulled within a mere two points in the third quarter and refused to go quietly in to the good night.

Leading just 82-80 with 56 seconds left in the third quarter, the Wolves scored 14 unanswered points to end the third and start the fourth quarter and led 94-80 with 10½ minutes left.

Wolves star Jimmy Butler scored 20 of his 32 points in the second half and his team withstood former Wolves guard Troy Daniels’ six three-pointers to win their third consecutive game.

The Wolves led 99-84 with more than eight minutes left before the Suns pulled within eight points again at 103-95 with 5½ minutes remaining. But they couldn’t get any closer, not after Jamal Crawford made a pair of free throws and Butler corralled a shot of his that had been blocked and scored on a banked shot that gave the Wolves a 107-95 lead with 3:52 left.

When the Suns came within five points three times in the final two minutes, the Wolves answered, first with Taj Gibson’s putback basket, then with Andrew Wiggins’ shot from the lane and finally with Butler;s two free throws with 34 seconds left.

The Suns had erased double-digit deficits in each of their past three victories, including a 15-pointer in a comeback victory over the Wolves at Target Center just a week before.

The Wolves already had lost twice to a Suns team that fell to 12-23 with Saturday’s loss.

Leading 64-43 at halftime, the Wolves allowed Phoenix to score 16 of the third quarter’s first 18 points and 22 of its first 28 while the Wolves went from shooting 61.5 percent in the first half to making just two of their first 13 shots after halftime.

The Suns drew within as few as five points midway through the third quarter before the Wolves used 9-2 run of their own to rebuild a 12-point lead with 3:35 left in the third quarter.

But the Suns responded immediately by making three consecutive three-point shots — a pair by Daniels sandwiched around one by recently signed Isaiah Canaan — and they twice pulled within a bucket late in the third quarter before the Wolves scored the final four points to take a 86-80 lead into the final quarter.

The Wolves led 12-2, 22-6 and 45-24 before the second quarter was five minutes old on a night when the Suns missed their first eight shots from the floor and 21 of their first 28.

By halftime, the Suns had shot 32.6 percent (14-for-43) while the Wolves made 61.5 percent (24-for-39) of their shots from the field. The Wolves also hammered the Suns in rebounds 26-14.

Saturday’s game concluded the four-game season series between the teams, and with two days still left before Christmas no less. They finish it tied 2-2 with each team winning a game in the other’s building. They are done before the Wolves have yet played Western Conference foes Houston or the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Sort of like a quirk in the schedule,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “Usually it’s spread out a little more. But however they come on the schedule, you have to be ready for them.”

A week earlier, the Suns won after Canaan was fouled by Jeff Teague on a three-point attempt with 6.1 seconds left and made all three foul shots.

The familiarity with each other streamlined scouting for both teams.

“Our coaches were saying they’re giving the coaches a break,” Suns coach Jay Triano said before the game. “You don’t have to learn a whole new team. You just learn the same team. Maybe you get a little bit of a break….It’s crazy. We’ll be finished now with Minnesota for the rest of the year, which is kind of strange for a Western Conference team before we get to the Christmas break.”