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Markieff Morris leads Suns past Timberwolves, 106-97

PHOENIX (AP) — Markieff Morris scored 24 points, Eric Bledsoe had 18 points and nine assists and the Phoenix Suns beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 106-97 on Wednesday night.

Rookie T.J. Warren added a career-high 17 points, and Marcus Thornton hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter and finished with 14 points.

Warren’s dunk with 3:20 left punctuated the win. He was fouled on the basket and made the free throw to give the Suns a 12-point lead.

Kevin Martin had 16 points for Minnesota, and second-year player Justin Hamilton matched his career high with 13. The Timberwolves lost for the sixth time in seven games.

Phoenix led throughout the fourth quarter. Minnesota cut it to six on Martin’s basket with 4:45 left, but the Suns pulled away in the closing minutes.

The Timberwolves took their first lead since the opening 2 minutes, at 57-56 on Gorgui Dieng’s two free throws with 7:51 left in the third quarter. The Suns responded, with Bledsoe hitting Brandan Wright under the basket for a layup and a 72-65 lead with 2:59 to go.

The Suns pushed it to 11 on Morris’ three straight baskets and entered the fourth up nine at 78-69.

TIP-INS

Timberwolves: C Nikola Pekovic played just 8 minutes before leaving for good in the first quarter with a sore right ankle. The game was the 12th in a 14-game stretch that goes through this weekend during which the Timberwolves face 13 teams with at least .500 winning percentages.

Suns: Point guard Brandon Knight is out with a sprained left ankle, so the Suns signed guard Seth Curry to a 10-day contract in time for the game. Curry averaged 23.5 points at Erie of the D-League this season and got into the game near the end. He’s the younger brother of Golden State star Stephen Curry. … The Suns recognized first responders throughout the evening, including during starting lineup introductions.

GARNETT SITS

Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett missed the game to rest a sore knee.

Coach Flip Saunders said Garnett, who last month returned to the Wolves in a trade with Brooklyn, will play Friday night at Oklahoma City. Garnett, in his 20th NBA season, also missed the team’s game Monday night against the Clippers in Los Angeles.

Saunders said Garnett hasn’t missed practices, but will do so on Thursday.

“When we traded for him and I talked to him, his number one thing (was) ‘I know we’re not going to the playoffs, I’ll sit out games but I’m not going to sit out practices, because I can really have an influence in practice with players,'” Saunders said. “We’re doing what we talked about doing when we traded for him.”

STAR WATCH

World Wrestling Entertainment and reality TV stars Nikki and Brie Bella, Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler appeared at Wednesday night’s game. The Bellas and Bryan live in the Phoenix area. A WWE live event is scheduled this month at the US Airwarys Center. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs also attended the game.

UP NEXT

Timberwolves: At Oklahoma City on Friday night.

Suns: Host Atlanta on Friday night.

This article was written by JOSE M. ROMERO from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.