Karl-Anthony Towns paced back and forth off to the side of the Timberwolves bench in the waning moments of Minnesota's 125-116 loss to Phoenix on Wednesday night.
He raised his head, bit his lower lip like he was keeping himself from yelling to the Target Center rafters.
Moments before, Towns' good friend and former Kentucky teammate Devin Booker was strutting around the court, talking his talk as the Suns, who hadn't led in the first three quarters, buried the Wolves with a 42-point fourth quarter.
For better or worse, the Wolves would wear their emotions on their sleeves, if their jerseys had any. They will chirp at opponents and officials, and there was plenty of that on a night that featured six technical and two flagrant fouls.
But when you dish it out, sometimes you have to take it, too, and the Western Conference champions, even without Chris Paul, taught the Wolves a lesson in what it's like to play playoff-caliber basketball.
"They just killed our defense. That was it," said Anthony Edwards, who had 19 points.
Edwards said the Suns plummeted the Wolves' "high-wall" defense in the fourth and managed to put the Wolves in impossible spots, and almost everyone did damage to them. Deandre Ayton finished with 35 points and 14 rebounds. Booker had 28 while Landry Shamet nailed five three-pointers for 19 points.
Towns had 15 points, but only three in the second half as he battled foul trouble. Towns picked up his fifth foul, a flagrant foul for nailing Shamet in the head as he was driving to the hoop, at the 8 minute, 35 second mark of the fourth.
