Wolves pin their usual rout on the Suns, running their streak against Phoenix to eight wins

With a team as mercurial as these Timberwolves, every night can be a new adventure. They lose games the should win, win games they should lose, and they provide plenty of head-scratching moments along the way, good and bad.

But there has been one certainty with this team: Whenever they face either of the teams they vanquished in last season’s playoffs, the Suns or the Nuggets, the Wolves will bring it.

That bore out again Friday night, as a slumping Wolves team that had lost three of four entering the night appeared to snap out of it in a breezy 124-109 victory.

Point guard Mike Conley (13 points) likely echoed a lot of dialogue among the fan base when he said after the game: “It’s motivating and frustrating at the same time. It honestly is. Because you look up and think, ‘Why weren’t we doing that all season? Why weren’t we doing that every game?’ ”

Some of that likely has to do with their opponent. The Wolves began their recent eight-game win streak with a win over the Suns, and the team that was there for that stretch was back on the floor. Friday marked their eighth consecutive win over the Suns dating back to the playoffs.

“We play these teams in the playoffs, you get to know them so well, some bad blood often comes in, and it becomes a little bit more personal,” coach Chris Finch said. “Certainly I know some of our guys take it that way, and we see it in the results. But every game has got to be personal in regards to what we’re trying to do here.”

They were hounding on defense, especially Jaden McDaniels, who helped limit Devin Booker to 10 points on 4-for-14 shooting. Then McDaniels added 16 points while getting an impressive block on Kevin Durant (23 points). McDaniels answered a pregame call from coach Chris Finch to win his one-on-one defensive matchups more frequently.

“Jaden was really, really special tonight, defensively,” Finch said. “We need more of that. We just got to keep doing that.”

The Wolves had no problem winning, even after Anthony Edwards missed the second quarter tending to an injured nose following a collision with Durant. Edwards returned after halftime and finished with 20 points. His teammates more than picked up the slack while he was out. Julius Randle looked more like the player he has been the second half of the season, finding the right balance of scoring and playmaking with 25 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Rudy Gobert excelled at both ends of the floor, turning away drivers at the rim and taking advantage of Phoenix’s lackadaisical pick-and-roll defense for 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting to go with 13 rebounds.

“We are our biggest opponent,” Gobert said. “We get a little complacent. When people start saying we’re good and when the odds are with us, that’s when we’re not as a good. It happened last year in the playoffs [against Dallas]. The odds had us losing every series. As soon as the odds had us winning, we didn’t. It’s on us to fix our own odds. We’ve been through it for the last few years, so by now we know that it’s just about us, our approach.”

They had the right approach Friday, but they didn’t need much of a push. The Wolves have eight games remaining in the season, with one left against Denver on Tuesday. Some of the remaining games (two against Brooklyn, one each against Philadelphia and Utah) are against teams lower in the standings than they are, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Have the Wolves turned a corner? Will their precarious playoff positioning finally force them to play with urgency no matter the opponent? Like a lot of things about this team, the answer isn’t certain.

“We play at our peak when we have a level of almost fear,” Gobert said. “A little bit of fear, a little bit of urgency, that survival instinct. When we play with that, we are really, really good. There’s no one that we cannot beat when we play that way.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 124, Suns 109

NBA standings

Current controlling owner Glen Taylor returned to his courtside seats near the Wolves bench for the first time since undergoing hip surgery last year. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this week the league was waiting for Taylor to weigh his options over whether he will appeal a recent arbitration ruling in favor of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez. Lore and Rodriguez, who were also in attendance, are set to become controlling owners of the team following the 2-1 decision in their favor in February over whether Taylor had the right to cancel the portion of the sale of the Wolves and Lynx that would make Rodriguez and Lore controlling owners.