PHOENIX — Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards noticed early in the third quarter that the Phoenix Suns switched up their defense, playing him one-on-one most of the time instead of using the double-teams from the first half.
The budding superstar took that as a challenge.
“It was like, you’ve got to beat us,” Edwards said. “And I showed them.”
Edwards scored 31 of his 40 points in the second half, Karl-Anthony Towns added 28 points overall and the Timberwolves pulled away late to beat the Suns 122-116 on Sunday night and sweep the first-round playoff series.
The Timberwolves went 19 seasons between playoff series victories, tied for the third-longest span between series wins in NBA history.
Edwards finished 13-of-23 from the field, including 7-of-13 from 3-point range. The 22-year-old threw down a powerful, one-handed jam to give Minnesota a 115-111 lead with 2:14 left.
“We’ve watched him grow, evolve as a leader, as a player, as a man,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “It’s been fun.”
Phoenix would never recover.
The Wolves finished off the Suns despite Devin Booker‘s 49 points on 13-of-21 shooting. He also made 20 of 21 free throws. Kevin Durant put up 33 points for Phoenix, but the rest of the team struggled.
Minnesota won after coach Chris Finch left the game late in the fourth after an inadvertent collision with Wolves guard Mike Conley. Assistant coach Micah Nori took over for the final 1:41, and the Wolves closed with relative ease.
Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels scored 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, and the Wolves had a 44-33 rebounding advantage.
It was a tight fourth quarter, and the Suns tied it at 107 on Royce O’Neale‘s 3-pointer with 4:30 remaining. Edwards and McDaniels then hit back-to-back corner 3s to put the Wolves up 113-109 with 3:20 left.
The Wolves now wait to see if they will face the Denver Nuggets or the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. Denver leads that series 3-1.
“Their whole team created a lot of problems for us,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said of the Wolves. “The role players, the stars. Anthony Edwards is a special, special talent. And their bigs played really well.”
Edwards hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the third quarter, and McDaniels followed with a powerful dunk, helping Minnesota turn a six-point deficit into a 68-66 lead. It was part of a big third for Edwards, who hit four 3-pointers and tallied 15 points.
Booker responded, scoring 18 points during the quarter, and the Suns took a 92-90 lead into the fourth.
It was a tough game for three-time All-Star Bradley Beal, who scored just nine points for Phoenix on 4-of-13 shooting before fouling out.
“They were executing late, and we didn’t,” Booker said.
The Suns threw various looks at the Wolves in the first half, using five perimeter players at various times to try to pull big men Gobert and Towns away from the basket.
Booker hit a fallaway jumper at the buzzer to give the Suns a 61-56 halftime lead. Durant led Phoenix with 20 points before the break, while Booker had 17. Towns had 15 for the Wolves.
Suns guard Grayson Allen missed his second straight game because of a sprained right ankle suffered in Game 1 that he aggravated in Game 2. He averaged 13.5 points per game and led the NBA in 3-point percentage during the regular season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
