With the season about to commence, Wolves fans assumed the points would come easy, the defense hard.
Monday at Target Center, against the red-hot Phoenix Suns, it was the reverse. Missing too many shots and turning the ball over too often much of the night, the Wolves used defense to stay in the game, to lead late in the fourth. One game after a questionable effort in a one-sided loss in Los Angeles to the Clippers, the Wolves, as Karl-Anthony Towns said, never let go of the rope.
But, still, another loss, 99-96 to the Suns, the Wolves' second straight and eighth in nine games. The Suns won their ninth straight.
Up a point when D'Angelo Russell hit two free throws with 88 seconds left, the Wolves were outscored 8-4 the rest of the way.
"I'm proud of us,'' said Towns, who scored 35 points with 13 rebounds. "I thought we played a really tough game. We did a lot of great things.''
But not enough things.
Tightly contested all night, the game had 16 lead changes and 16 ties. Neither team ever led by more than seven points.
But in the end, the Wolves (4-9) couldn't contain Chris Paul, who scored 19 of his 21 points in the final 12 minutes. He and Devin Booker (nine of his 29 in the fourth) combined to score 28 of the Suns' 33 points in the fourth quarter.