Dillon Brooks wants to get under your skin. That’s his MO.
He’s averaged 14.3 points over his nine-year career with the Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, and now Phoenix Suns. But his abrasive defense and mental antics separate him from the next dependable third or fourth option on a winning team.
Sometimes, his antics backfire, and he ends up bothering the wrong player. Anthony Edwards has historically welcomed Brooks’ physicality and extracurricular activities. In Friday’s game against the Suns, Edwards finished with 41 points on 14 of 24 shooting in 40 minutes. He dropped 19 points in the third quarter, erasing a 13-point halftime lead for the Suns by going directly at Brooks.
It appeared as though Brooks’ antics had worked against him. However, the Suns ultimately beat the Wolves, 115-114, on a Collin Gillespie game-winner. Brooks finished with 22 points on 4 of 8 from 3-point range. The villain got the last laugh. The Wolves, who had won eight straight games against Phoenix, further showed that, despite all of their recent success, they still need to mature.
Brooks — with his scoring, defense, and extracurricular activities — helped lead the Suns to victory on Friday. However, he wasn’t the reason Minnesota lost. The Wolves fell to 0-6 against teams over .500 because they crumbled under pressure down the stretch for Phoenix, a point Brooks directly called out during his postgame media availability.
“They were talking too early and I love that,” he said. “When guys get too confident, and then once the pressure starts heating up, their eyes start getting big, and they start getting scared.”
Phoenix closed Friday’s game on a 9-0 run over the final 49 seconds. But before that happened, Minnesota had stolen all of the energy out of the crowd — Randle dove on the floor for a loose ball with 1:44 left in the game. Chris Finch called a timeout as soon as Randle had possession. Minnesota’s bench, along with the Wolves fans in the crowd, popped with enthusiasm.
It was a tightly contested late-game battle against a Western Conference foe, the type of game that the Timberwolves played their best in last season. Minnesota’s lead stood at only three, but they had all the momentum in their grasp and increased their lead to eight points over the next minute. The win was right there for the taking. ESPN calculated the Wolves’ win percentage to be 98.9% with 52 seconds left.
The Wolves were going to walk out of Phoenix with their ninth-straight win over the Suns if they could have simply played keep-away. Instead, their two usual heroes made miscues that allowed the Suns to rally back and win the game.
“The person who was talking too much (Julius Randle) made the two turnovers and missed the shot,” Brooks said postgame.
Randle has been Minnesota’s reliable leader this season. He’s played in every game and has looked like an All-Star in nearly every one of his minutes. However, he committed two critical turnovers in the final minute of Friday’s game. The first came when he attacked three Suns defenders. Brooks poked the ball free.
Jordan Goodwin converted a transition layup off the turnover, pulling the Suns within one point with 21.4 seconds remaining. Then, Randle committed a lazy turnover off the inbound. Thankfully, an offensive foul call gave Minnesota possession. Still, it was a sequence that gave Phoenix life when the game should have been over. It’s a sequence that the Wolves simply can’t let happen.
Minnesota had the ball with 18 seconds left. The shot clock was off, so Phoenix had to foul. They fouled Edwards, who is shooting a career-high 84% from the free-throw line this season. Ant missed both free throws, allowing the Gillespie game-winner to happen.
“We lost our minds,” Finch said postgame. “Poor execution. Turnovers, obviously. We just didn’t stay locked in for the last 90 seconds.”
It was one game. Really, it was only about one minute. If Edwards makes both of those free throws, the Wolves probably beat the Suns, and we are having a different conversation right now. Edwards is better than that, and the Wolves have proven that they can bounce back from tough games or stretches — they did it repeatedly last season. Friday’s loss in Phoenix was only one game.
The loss embodied more than just one game, though.
Minnesota’s lack of maturity has been a recurring theme this season. It hasn’t always manifested in late-game blunders, primarily because the Timberwolves have put inferior teams away before clutch time. Regardless, the Wolves are having stretches of mental lapses, some spanning for an entire half or even game, that a team of this caliber with championship aspirations can’t be making.
The Suns scored 62 points in the first half. They shot 22 of 39 (56.4%) from the floor and 9 of 17 (52.9%) from deep. Their offensive rating was 121.6. Minnesota’s point-of-attack defense was nonexistent. They were far too slow rotating out on shooters, and they were not getting back on defense in transition.
Those have all been defining characteristics of Minnesota’s defense this season, which they wanted to return to the league-leading level it was on in 2023-24. But instead, the Wolves’ defense ranks 14th so far. Not only that, but they are allowing their opponents to grab 12.8 offensive rebounds per game, tied for the fourth-most in the NBA. Minnesota has all the tools to be a consistently stout defensive team. However, they are lacking a collective buy-in, want-to, and attention to detail on that side of the floor for a full 48 minutes.
In the clip above, Edwards watches Brooks’ three-point attempt fly through the air instead of boxing out Royce O’Neale, the player he was defending. O’Neale waltzed in for an uncontested offensive rebound and putback. Then, Edwards turned it over on the inbounds pass and watched Goodwin drill a three to give the Suns life.
Had Ant simply boxed out, the Wolves probably would have beaten the Suns.
Those little blunders are the ones Edwards keeps making. He wants to win MVP. He wants to win a championship and make an All-Defensive team. Players who accomplish those big things don’t fail at the little things late in games.
Like Edwards, the Timberwolves have their sights set high this season, as they should. The Wolves have a collection of high-quality players who have chemistry. They have been to the Conference Finals in two straight seasons.
Still, for all the success the Wolves have had and the continuity they have fostered, they need to mature. Fans may not have liked to hear it, but Brooks’ postgame assessment of the team was accurate. The Timberwolves cumbled in a game they should have won.
Ant’s missed free throws are one thing. But his ball-watching, Edwards and Randle’s turnovers, and the inconsistent team defense are other issues. Before the Wolves can be a serious threat to win the Finals, they must mature into a team that consistently defends at a high level and operates at an air-tight level late in games.
