The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Tuesday night's home contest with the Phoenix Suns with Anthony Edwards unavailable to play for the 11th time this season. However, the Wolves proved once again that they can take care of business without their best player on the hardwood, defeating the Suns 116-104. 

With less than a month left in the regular season and the standings as tight as ever in the three-through-six range in the West standings, every game matters immensely. It would have been easy for Minnesota to let the circumstances affect them and drop this one, but they showed resiliency. 

Chris Finch was asked about the team's performance in Edwards' absence at the podium following the game. 

"I thought it was great," Finch said. "I thought obviously Bones [Hyland] was a huge spark for us, kind of got us back into the game ... But what I loved most was just the defense. That was some of the best on-ball defense we've played in a long time. And then once we took care of the offensive rebounds, it was kind of one shot and done." 

Finch was just as impressed as the rest of us were at seeing Bones Hyland come off the bench and dropping what was one bucket shy of a season high for him with 22 points. His ability to create off the dribble and get into the paint opened up the offense and gave Phoenix another issue out on the perimeter to deal with. 

That's the thing about this Timberwolves team. When Edwards has had to miss time, this coaching staff has the luxury of knowing they have plenty of talent that can step up. Tuesday night, that was Hyland.

Of course, what Finch was most impressed with was the overall defensive effort. Putting a lot of pressure on Phoenix's ball-handlers suffocated their scoring efforts, and cleaning up the offensive glass removed any second-chance lifeline the Suns might have grabbed onto.

With the three-through-six seeds in the Western Conference all within a game and a half of each other as of this writing, the Timberwolves' identity on that end of the floor is their most valuable asset. Offenses go cold and shots stop falling for every team. But defense, when it's truly bought in, tends to show up every single night regardless.

Minnesota has now gone 7-4 this season with Anthony Edwards out of the lineup. The Wolves are proving that although they of course won't win a championship without him, they're far from doomed on a nightly basis if he can't go.

Defensive discipline and a next-man-up mentality aren't things you can just manufacture three quarters of the way through the season. They've been growing in this locker room all season, and they're going to make the Timberwolves a tough out once the playoffs arrive.