Suns Strokes: Phoenix’s bid at 3-game winning streak doomed by Andrew Wiggins

It’s a question that’s been asked before: Have the Phoenix Suns turned the corner?

It’s hard to answer in the affirmative without a winning streak on the resume, at least one of any significance.

The Suns’ latest attempt — their third — at a season-best three-game winning streak ended with Andrew Wiggins beating the buzzer, hitting an 18-foot jump shot in the face of P.J. Tucker and sending the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 112-111 victory in front of 17,241 at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Tuesday.

Only seconds earlier, Tucker had made two free throws to put the Suns ahead 111-110.

Wiggins scored 22 of his game-high 31 points in the second half. He had 14 in the fourth quarter alone.

The Timberwolves (17-28) placed six players, including all five starters in double figures.

Karl-Anthony Towns (18 points and 10 rebounds) and Ricky Rubio (14 and 10 assists) recorded double-doubles.

It was the Timberwolves’ third straight win and fourth in a row over the Suns, completing the three-game season sweep. Minnesota last swept Phoenix in 2003-04.

The game see-sawed several times.

The Suns (15-30) led by as many as 11 and trailed by as much as 14 with the final six minutes seeing four ties and two lead changes.

Devin Booker had 26 points and Tyson Chandler 22. Chandler added 17 rebounds to his season-high in scoring.

The loss snapped the Suns’ two-game home winning streak.

THE GOOD

Leave it to Eric Bledsoe to get the Suns going. His assist on an Alex Len dunk jumpstarted a 16-2 run, including 12 straight at one point, to hand the Suns a 21-16 lead at the 3:38 mark of the first quarter. Bledsoe accounted for 11 of the 16 points, scoring seven and assisting on a pair of field goals. His seven points were a first-quarter team-high. Booker and Chandler each had six with Chandler adding five rebounds through 12 minutes.

With points on five straight possessions, the Suns re-took a 53-48 lead at the 3:05 mark of the second quarter. It began with a Bledsoe layup and ended with Bledsoe throwing a lob to Chandler for the alley-oop dunk. In-between, there were 3s made by Booker and Marquese Chriss plus a pair of free throws by Tucker. Bledsoe (12 points) and Booker (11) each reached double figures at halftime.

Not even halfway through the third quarter and Chandler had recorded his fourth double-double in his last seven games played — his 10th overall this season. In fact, he had a double-double in the third quarter alone with 10 points and 10 rebounds, both team-highs for the period. Through three quarters, Chandler had 18 points (8-8 FG, 2-3 FT) and 16 rebounds (10 defensive) plus a pair of blocked shots.

After missing his first fourth-quarter shot attempt, Booker made four straight shots, including a trio of 3-pointers; the latter of which tied the game at 96 with 5:45 left to play. Booker finished the period with a team-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He’s now extended his career-long streak of scoring at least 20 points to 10 games, the longest run by a Suns player since Amar’e Stoudemire had 11 straight from Nov. 30-Dec. 25, 2008.

THE BAD

It took the Suns nearly two minutes to make their first field goal, and then they hit just one more over the next two minutes. They missed five of seven shot attempts, and forward Marquese Chriss was forced to exit early after picking up his second foul at the 8:42 mark. Meanwhile, Wiggins scored seven and Towns five to put the Timberwolves ahead 14-5 at the 7:40 mark of the first quarter.

Leading by 11, 38-27, at the 8:59 mark of the second quarter, the Suns went more than five minutes without a made field goal. The Timberwolves took advantage with a 17-3 run for a 44-41 lead with 5:04 to play. Shabazz Muhammad had the hot hand with seven points. He finished the period with 12, hitting a 3-pointer with 8.9 seconds left to put the visitors ahead 59-56 at halftime.

An 11-3 close to the first half was followed up by a 17-6 spurt to begin the second by the Timberwolves. Add it all up and Minnesota had outscored the Suns 28-9 over a nearly nine-minute stretch to erase a five-point deficit (53-48) and take a 14-point lead (76-62), their largest of the game, at the 6:08 mark of the third quarter. Gorgui Dieng and Rubio both led the way with six points.

STAT OF THE GAME

52.4: The Timberwolves improved to 9-2 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field

HE SAID IT

“This was one of those games where we probably could have stolen it, but we can’t steal games,” head coach Earl Watson said. “They shot 52 percent from the field. That’s not how we’ve been winning games. We had a chance to steal it down at the end of the stretch. It almost seemed like whoever had the ball last would win, so that was a long six seconds, but he stumbled, picked it up, made it. That’s amazing athleticism and concentration. Usually, if you can knock a guy off his rhythm, the shot never falls in.”

NOTED

– Alex Len (11 points and 10 rebounds) recorded his first double-double since Dec. 9 at the Lakers.

– Bledsoe went 7-of-7 from the foul line and has now made 32 consecutive free throws, last missing on Jan. 19.

– Tucker moved past Stoudemire (447) and into 15th place on the franchise all-time steals leaderboard.

– Jared Dudley, who has appeared in only one game since Dec. 23, did not dress because of flu-like symptoms.

– Head coach Lorenzo Romar and the Washington Huskies, who play at ASU Wednesday, were in attendance.

UP NEXT

It’s the rare away-home set as the Suns face Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari and Will Barton of the Denver Nuggets twice in three days, first on Thursday in Denver and then on Saturday in Phoenix.

Tip-off Thursday is scheduled for 7 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

The Nuggets hold a current four-game winning streak in the series, including two victories this season, though both of those occurred back in November.

Overall, the Suns have won eight of 13 against the Nuggets.

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