Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Phoenix Suns
Date: December 8th, 2025
Time: 6:30 PM CST
Location: Target Center
Television Coverage: Peacock, FanDuel Sports Network – North
Radio Coverage: Wolves App, iHeart Radio

There are Timberwolves games you circle on the calendar because of the stakes. There are Timberwolves games you circle because of trauma. And then there’s this one, when both circles overlap like a Venn diagram labeled “Stuff We Pretend We’re Over but Definitely Are Not.”

Minnesota brings a five-game winning streak into Target Center Monday night, looking to avenge not just a loss to Phoenix, but the loss. The collapse. The kind of fourth-quarter faceplant that instantly gets seared into your franchise’s psyche like a cigarette burn on a motel bedspread. Up eight with under a minute left in the desert, and the Wolves somehow managed to complete every item on the “How to Blow an NBA Game in 60 Seconds” checklist.

Missed free throws? Check.
Careless turnovers? Check.
Shot selection that should come with a Surgeon General warning? Check.
A collective existential crisis? Oh yeah, big-time check.

That meltdown kept them out of the NBA Cup for the third straight year. Phoenix went on to celebrate, and the Wolves flew home with the basketball equivalent of food poisoning.

Fast-forward two weeks, and the Wolves have a chance to finally flush that one down the memory hole… or relive it in 4K.

Déjà Vu But With Slightly Better Lighting

Saturday’s comeback win over the Clippers was basically the Phoenix collapse run through a photocopier. Same first half malaise. Same inexplicable 18-point deficit. Same 3rd quarter rally that led to the Wolves holding a sizable late-game lead, only to come undone by the same flurry of turnovers and same ISO-ball sludge, leading to the same feeling of dread permeating through the Wolves’ fanbase.

The difference this time?

Naz Reid. One perfect, timely, cold-blooded three that bailed Minnesota out after they coughed up yet another late lead.

That’s the thing with this team: they don’t just flirt with disaster, they take it to dinner, introduce it to their parents, maybe even get matching tattoos. But the Wolves survived. They’ve now won five straight. They’re still in the mix to be team that can hold a 2 or 3 seed in the Western playoff bracket. And tomorrow night, with the Suns limping into Target Center missing both Devin Booker and Jalen Green, this should be, on paper, the easiest win of the entire winning streak.

But when have the words “easy win” and “Timberwolves” ever been allowed in the same sentence?

If you’re reading this site, you already know the answer: never.

So here’s how Minnesota avoids stepping on the same rake twice.

1. Don’t Turn the Ball Over Like You’re Trying to Lose on Purpose

The Wolves played the first half against the Clippers like they were actively participating in a charity fundraiser for L.A.’s transition offense. Bad passes. Dribbling into traffic. Getting stripped because they simply forgot who was guarding them. It was the full sampler platter of offensive negligence. At one point they had 30 total points late in the second quarter and found themselves in an 18-point hole.

Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle were the biggest culprits, which is not all that surprising as the ball is in their hands most often. A the same time, it’s also unacceptable because they’re the two guys who can’t be the reason the team implodes.

Phoenix is missing Booker and Green, two major shot creators. They shouldn’t be gifted possessions. They shouldn’t be spoon-fed easy transition points. If Minnesota simply values the ball like a normal team, their talent advantage will take over.

If they don’t? Well… we’ve seen that movie.

For the first 24 minutes on Saturday, the Wolves played the dreaded “my turn, your turn” offense. Dribble, dribble, dribble, contested jumper, repeat. It was like watching a married couple argue with passive-aggressive pauses between each possession.

Then the second half happened. The ball started popping. Randle’s gravity opened up shooters. Conley hit a huge corner three. Donte DiVincenzo finally got a clean look. Naz Reid turned into an assassin.

This team looks like a juggernaut when they move the ball. They look like a YMCA team of talented strangers when they don’t. Phoenix would love nothing more than for Minnesota to sleepwalk into ISO-heavy mud. If the Wolves fall into that trap, the Suns can hang around way longer than an injury-riddled roster should.

With Booker out, Phoenix loses its primary rim attacker. That means they’ll lean even harder on spacing and perimeter creation. The Wolves cannot allow this to become a “random dude gets hot and ruins your night” game.

Enter Edwards, McDaniels, and Jaylen Clark, who need to set the tone at the 3-point line, rotate, close out, and deny the Suns easy looks from beyond the arc.

If the Wolves close out hard, rotate with purpose, and don’t allow Phoenix to get comfortable from three, this game gets out of hand quickly.

If they don’t? Enjoy another fourth quarter with your blood pressure in the red zone.

This is the sneaky key to the entire night.

The Suns are a wounded animal. Their best path to stealing another win?

Dillon Brooks doesn’t have the firepower to beat the Wolves straight up. But he can bait them. Push them. Fluster them. Flop and draw a cheap foul on Ant or Rudy. Start chirping. Turn the game into a ref-fest. Get Minnesota off its rhythm.

The Wolves cannot — cannot — respond emotionally. This is a night for professionalism. If Brooks and Phoenix starts poking, Minnesota has to walk away like a team that has bigger goals.

WHY THIS GAME MATTERS MORE THAN IT SHOULD

This isn’t just about revenge for a dumb collapse in the desert.
This isn’t just about winning six straight.
This isn’t just about avoiding embarrassment against a shorthanded opponent.

This is about playoff math and seeding and identity.

Despite the early-season turbulence, the Wolves are still right in the mix for the 2–3 seeds. And that matters. It matters a ton. You do not want OKC on your side of the bracket before the Western Conference Finals. You just don’t.

These are the games you have to win to make that happen. The home games against undermanned teams. The “take care of business” nights. The ones elite teams circle as automatic Ws.

If the Wolves are going to keep climbing, if they want to be taken seriously, if they want to build toward OKC Round 2 with real momentum, then this is where you show it.

Beat the Suns.
Correct the mistakes from last time.
Walk into the mini break on a six-game heater.

This should be the easy one.

Which is exactly why it won’t be, unless the Wolves decide to grow up and make it so.