It was the Devin Booker show tonight in Minnesota when the Sun-All-Star guard exploded for 43 points to lead the Suns to their 22nd win of the season.
Phoenix made another change to the starting lineup by bringing Franky Kaminsky back to the series after starting Jae Crowder against Chicago on Friday night.
The Suns plan to continue to make these decisions based, and both Jae and Frank will have to be ready for any direction Monty Williams decides on any given night.
The Suns traded early with the Wolves shots because it was a back-and-forth affair in the first quarter. There was not much separation created by one of the two teams, and it looked like the Suns would sleep through another game against a less opponent.
Phoenix led 30 to 26 in the second quarter, thanks to a setback by Dario Saric to close the opening frame.
Devin Booker made a notch in the second time and scored 14 points in the second quarter – 20 times in the half.
Deandre Ayton hit 8 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 assist and played a solid defense on Karl-Anthony Towns, limiting himself to just 8 points on four shot attempts, with three of those points coming immediately from the first shot of the game.
Turnover was a major issue in the first half as the Suns committed ten turnovers as a team, and as Kellan noted in the tweet below, eight different players contributed to the case.
Eight different Suns players have a turnover at the end of the half
– Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) March 1, 2021
At halftime, the Suns led 53-48, surpassing the Wolves by one point in the second quarter.
The Suns seemed much more locked up to start the third quarter on both sides of the floor, with a better engagement that jumped to a 9-point lead in the first few minutes.
From then on, the recurring issues of turnover hit them and they went into sleepwalking mode again when the Wolves reduced the lead to 3, which forced Monty Williams to call a timeout.
Turnover continued to hurt Phoenix and kept Minnesota alive as they had five quick TOs in the first 6:30 of the quarter.
Chris Paul had 11 assistants in his first 23 minutes, including this gem to Mikal Bridges for the one-and-one.
Devin Booker was locked up again and dropped 21 points in the 3rd quarter to bring his total to 41 points.
Devin Booker is just a flat shooter.
41 points on 24 shots with 12 minutes left.
– Zone (@AZSportsZone) March 1, 2021
Jae Crowder had a rough first three quarters as he was 0-for-4 with 3 turnovers and 0 points in 17 minutes.
The supporting cast was from a points perspective beyond Deandre Ayton’s 12 points, he was the only player on the Suns with double figures through three quarters of the game.
In the fourth and final quarter, the Suns led 86-to-76.
Dario Saric started strong with a couple of tries to open the quarter to extend the Suns’ lead to 15.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Suns really started to kick off and extended the lead to 17 after a Chris Paul attack that led to a timeout in Minnesota.
Paul and Saric thrive with Booker on the bench to start the 4th and final term.
The Suns outscored Minnesota by 13 points in the 2nd half and were able to clear the bench early after it looked like it could be a dogfight through the first 24 minutes.
Deandre Ayton defended a terrific night at Towns and also jumped with 22 points and 10 rebounds at 9/11.
Phoenix defeated the Lakers on TNT on Tuesday in a game against two heavy hitters from the West.
Devin Booker- 43 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 block on 15/26 shooting.
Next: @ Los Angeles Lakers (20:00 on TNT)