The Minnesota Timberwolves can’t lose a game like the one they lost against the Phoenix Suns Friday night. Well, they did. But if they want to be the team they think they can be, they just can’t.

The Wolves were up eight points on the Suns with 49 seconds left. Devin Booker had fouled out. Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle and coach Chris Finch had all come up big over the first 46 minutes to put the Wolves in position for their first victory over a winning team this season, and a 3-0 record in the NBA Cup to boot.

Edwards broke out of a recent shooting slump to put up 41 points, including five 3-pointers. Randle was diving on the floor for loose balls to create extra possessions, a gutsy effort on a night when he was on the quiet side from a scoring standpoint with 20 points on 13 shots. Finch was calling timeouts to retain possessions and pushing the right buttons to turn an 18-point first-half deficit into a 113-105 lead with under a minute to play.

In the blink of an eye, it all fell apart. And the three most important men on the court for the Wolves were all culpable in a gut-wrenching 114-113 defeat.

“We lost our minds,” Finch said postgame.

Edwards turned the ball over on an inbounds pass, leading to a 3-pointer from Jordan Goodwin that cut the lead to 113-110.

Randle turned the ball over on the next two possessions, one leading to a layup from Goodwin and the next preventing the Wolves from getting fouled and going to the line to try to extend the lead.

THIS SUNS SEQUENCE 🔥

7 STRAIGHT POINTS TO CUT IT TO 1!

Timberwolves-Suns | West Group A | NBA League Pass pic.twitter.com/6CHFF0I83t

— NBA (@NBA) November 22, 2025

Then, leading by one with 13 seconds to play, Edwards, an 87 percent free-throw shooter going into the game, missed both foul shots to give the Suns one more crack at a win. And that’s when Collin Gillespie came through with the game winner.

COLLIN GILLESPIE WINS IT FOR THE SUNS IN THE FINAL SECONDS!!!

ENDED THE GAME ON A 9-0 RUN.

PHOENIX MOVES TO 2-0 IN WEST GROUP A 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4MoPXWx4fp

— NBA (@NBA) November 22, 2025

On that final defensive possession, when the Timberwolves absolutely needed a stop, Finch did not have one of his two best perimeter defenders on the floor. Jaylen Clark watched from the sideline while Gillespie hunted Donte DiVincenzo and got right to his spot.

Clark has forced his way into the rotation thanks to a dogged determination that has started to revive a Wolves defense that was dormant at the start of the season. Finch has lauded his intelligence, toughness and fearlessness. The Wolves want to be a defense-first team, and it has been Clark and Rudy Gobert who have come closest to embodying that spirit this season.

Up until that point, it had not been one of Clark’s better games. He was 0 for 1 from the field and the Wolves were outscored by 12 points in his eight minutes on the court. It was just the third time this month that Clark has been on the wrong side of the plus-minus ledger.

But the Wolves still could have used him in the closing seconds when they couldn’t afford another bucket from Phoenix, which put a small lineup on the floor with Gillespie, Goodwin, Royce O’Neale, Ryan Dunn and Mark Williams.

If the Wolves were going to put Clark in the game, it likely would have come in place of Randle, not DiVincenzo, so the Wolves could match up with the Suns lineup. There were 16 seconds left, which would have given Phoenix enough time to hunt DiVincenzo either way. The game was also being officiated tightly, and Clark likes to play a physical brand of defense. A foul at that point would have put the Suns on the line.

There is an argument for putting Clark in the game over DiVincenzo, who is a good off-ball defender but is not as strong when he is on the ball, and sticking with Randle, who was guarding Dunn in the corner. Dunn is not a real threat offensively and Randle could have helped on the boards should there have been a missed shot.

In the end, Finch trusted the group he had on the floor. DiVincenzo had four steals in the game and has been improving defensively over the last few weeks. But he couldn’t keep Gillespie from getting a clean look, and the Wolves missed out on what would’ve been their best win of the year to fall to 0-6 against winning teams.

They wasted a brilliant offensive game from Edwards, who made 14 of 24 shots, including 5 of 11 from 3 after going 3 for 30 from deep over his previous four games. He scored 19 points in the third quarter to rally the Wolves from their deficit, talking smack to Dillon Brooks the whole way.

THAT STEPBACK IS UNGUARDABLE. pic.twitter.com/KXaye39039

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) November 22, 2025

They wasted the return of Jaden McDaniels, who missed the game on Wednesday against Washington with a sprained left wrist, snapping a streak of 157 straight games played. McDaniels went up against his nemesis, Booker, and helped hold him to 16 points on 4-for-18 shooting in 35 minutes.

It was a brutal way to lose a game that the Wolves were desperately trying to win. They have said that advancing in the NBA Cup and the financial rewards that come with winning it all were a priority this season. At 2-1 with a plus-53 point differential, they are still in the hunt. But a win would have all but clinched a spot in the quarterfinals.

For 46 minutes, Edwards, Randle and Finch put the Wolves in position for a rare quality win, one that could have given them a springboard into a more difficult portion of the schedule. But all three faltered when it mattered most, and the Wolves are still looking for that first big one.

In some ways, this game marked a step forward for Minnesota. The Wolves (10-6) were getting run off the floor in the second quarter by a team that has been playing better-than-expected basketball to start the season. But they dug deep and came all the way back, overpowering the Suns on both ends of the court. It was a step up from the lackluster play that was good enough for them to beat the lowly Wizards Wednesday.

Then they allowed a 9-0 run from the Suns to close the game, an embarrassing collapse that lays at the feet of their three leaders.