Suns 107, Timberwolves 104
PHOENIX -- Mirza Teletovic hit five 3-pointers including the game-winner with 1.2 seconds left and the Phoenix Suns rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 107-104 on Monday.
P.J. Tucker had a career-high 23 points and added 12 rebounds and Teletovic had 21 for the Suns (18-49), who shot 42 percent from the field and committed 24 turnovers but still found a way to win.
Zach LaVine scored a game-high 28 points and Ricky Rubio added 13 points for the Timberwolves (21-46), who missed a chance to win back-to-back road games for the first time since they began the season with four road wins.
Devin Booker added 16 points and his three-point play with 9.2 seconds gave the Suns a 104-102 lead. But Andrew Wiggins, who had 22 points for Minnesota, blew past Phoenix's Alex Len for a layup with 4.6 seconds left to tie the game for the 15th time at 104.
But Teletovic ran across the court off a double screen and took the inbounds pass for a 26-footer to give the Suns the lead for good.
Center Tyson Chandler added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Suns, including a pair of put-back slams 1:22 apart to turn a 94-94 game into a 98-94 Phoenix lead with 2:20 left. He fouled out with 32.4 seconds left.
But Minnesota answered with a Karl-Anthony Towns free throw and a LaVine 3-pointer to tie the game at 98 with 1:48 left to send the game down to the wire.
Thanks to an 11-2 scoring edge from their bench, the Suns led by as many as five points in the first quarter. Teletovic had seven early points and his 3-pointer gave Phoenix a 17-12 with 5:41 left.
But the Timberwolves got 12 points from LaVine, including six straight to wipe out the Suns lead, and eight from Wiggins and trailed by only two at 27-25 at the quarter.
The Suns pushed the lead back to five at 36-31 on a Chase Buddinger layup with 8:47 left in the half before Minnesota took over. Rubio hit two jumpers before feeding Gorgui Dieng for a dunk to cap a 20-5 run over the next six-plus minutes and give the Timberwolves a 51-41 lead with 2:04 left.
Wiggins had 10 more points in the quarter and closed the half with an alley-oop dunk off a Rubio feed to cap a 57-point first half and give his team a 57-47 lead.
Knight, who had 30 points in his first game back from injury against Golden State Saturday, missed all six shots from the field in the first half on his way to a 3-for-18 shooting game. Knight and Len, who combined for 56 points against the Warriors, were a combined 0-for-8 from the field with one total point in the first half.
The Suns got back into it midway through the third quarter, scoring on five straight possessions and moving within 66-64 on a reverse layup by Tucker with 6:13 left. Tucker had nine points in the quarter and Phoenix trailed 78-76 after three.
Knight, who made his first basket with 1:12 left in the third quarter, tied the game at 78 with a driving layup on the first possession of the fourth quarter. Tucker followed with back-to-back 3-pointers and Phoenix had an 84-78 lead with 9:48 left.
NOTES: The game featured a matchup of University of Kentucky rookies in Phoenix G Devin Booker and Minnesota C Karl-Anthony Towns. Since the All-Star Break, Towns (20.7 points) leads all rookies in scoring and Booker (18.8) is third. Booker (four) and Towns (three) rank 1-2 among rookies in 30-point games this season. ... Booker came into the game averaging 26.7 points and six assists in the last six games. ... Minnesota interim coach Sam Mitchell, after his team stunned Oklahoma City on the road Friday, on a game featuring two teams with 38 combined wins: "I just hope we go out and play. Understand that we're not good: They have 17 wins, we've got 21. I shouldn't have to say anything more than that." ... The Timberwolves had allowed 112.6 points per game over the past 16 games. G Brandon Knight matched a season high with seven 3-pointers in his return to the lineup in Saturday's 123-116 loss to Golden State. He also had seven 3-pointers against Minnesota on Dec. 13. The Suns won 108-101 that night and are 6-35 since.