After trailing from the first basket to the final 69 ticks, Minnesota defeated a Phoenix team that lacked key players but had Devin Booker, who scored 44 points.

Sunday’s game against Phoenix went like much of Julius Randle’s season so far in Minnesota — not always pretty, Phoenix led most of the way and had focused on getting the ball of his hands and daring the other Minnesota players to beat them. Still, he found his spots and had 32 points on 10-of-19 shooting.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have struggled to start the 2024-25 NBA season after executing a foundation-altering trade just before training camp, sending Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.