http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves/ci_5483977 The Timberwolves showed Tuesday night that they could compete with one of the NBA's best teams - for a stretch. But that's not enough to get the job done. Spotty stretches of good play and defense won't do it either. The Phoenix Suns took over in the third quarter to put away the Wolves, with Raja Bell scoring 16 of his 22 points as the Wolves lost control of the game and eventually lost 108-90 as their road struggles continue. Bell made four of his five three-pointers in the quarter to sink the Wolves. Bell helped Suns clinch the Pacific Division title for the third consecutive season. The Suns made 16 of 38 shots from three-point range. Leandro Barbosa, inserted into the Suns' starting lineup to rev up their sputtering offense, added 20 points. Guard Steve Nash, the NBA's most valuable player the past two seasons, had 18 points and 11 assists. Minnesota played pretty well in the first quarter and closed the second quarter with a 16-4 run to head into halftime trailing by just four points. But the bottom line remains the same: another city, another loss. The Wolves' losing streak on the road is 11 games, with a tough second game of a back-to-back tonight at Sacramento. The loss leaves the 28-38 Wolves 2? games behind Golden State (32-37) in the race for the eighth and last playoff spot in the Western Conference. "Adversity is not our friend right now,'' Wolves coach Randy Wittman said. "I'm done talking about the playoffs, I've talked about it so much.'' The Wolves are 5-10 this season on the second game of back-to-backs. The Kings are 18-14 at home and not exactly a pushover, no matter how much a recent 1-4 road trip might be weighing on Sacramento. If the Wolves have defensive lapses as they had Tuesday night, it will be a tough game to win. "We've got to win these last two road games, bar none," said Minnesota all-star Kevin Garnett, who had his usual big game against the Suns, scoring 30 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. He made 11 of 20 shots, but it wasn't enough. His teammates made just 23 of 66 shots from the floor, or 34.8 percent. The Suns, with Nash running the show, cruised past the Wolves in the third quarter. Bell was hot in the third quarter, making 6 of 7 shots. The Suns also pushed the pace better in the quarter, cranking up the tempo of the game in their favor. The Wolves did a poor job of guarding Bell, who found seams in the Wolves' defense, and the Suns found him. Bell is one of the league's top three-point shooters, so his shooting ability shouldn't have been a surprise. "They got us into transition to where we didn't match up and they got some open looks,'' Wittman said. "Raja got hot and knocked down some shots.'' Phoenix shot 48.4 percent and led by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter. The Wolves played pretty well in the first quarter. They had fallen behind 13-3 at Golden State and 27-10 against the Los Angeles Lakers in their previous two games. --

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