MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AFP) -- Kevin Garnett scored 44 points and the Minnesota Timberwolves snapped Phoenix's club-record 17-game National Basketball Association win streak, defeating the Suns 121-112 here Monday.

Garnett, who set a season-high point total and also grabbed 11 rebounds, sparked the Timberwolves to a 22-22 record this season while inflicting only the ninth loss in 45 games upon the Suns, who had not lost since December 28. "Garnett hit everything and that's why he makes the big bucks," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He's hard to handle. That's just how good superstars in this league are. On certain nights, you can't turn them off."

It was the second-highest one-game total of Garnett's career, exceeded only by his 47-point effort against the Suns in a loss in January of 2005. He sank 18-of-29 shots from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line.

"I was just aggressive," Garnett said. "A lot of nights, I'll feel that I have a nice touch and scoring is not the only thing I can do. If I'm able to make someone better on my team, I'll do that. "I noticed that they weren't trapping, and doing some different things that they've done in the past, and I wanted to be aggressive against that."

The Suns, whose former club record of 15 wins in a row was achieved earlier this season, had lost only twice since November 18 to achieve the longest NBA win streak since the Chicago Bulls won 18 in a row in the 1995-1996 season. "We competed as hard as we could but we didn't have it," D'Antoni said. "It's unbelievable that it took 17 nights for it to finally show up a little bit. We have to tee it back up and go at it again."

Raja Bell scored 26 points to lead the Suns while Shawn Marion contributed 24 points and 10 rebounds and Canadian guard Steve Nash added 20 points and 18 assists in a losing cause. "We wanted to slow the tempo down, get the game where we wanted," Garnett said. "We still had to get some buckets. We did a good job on second-chance points. You can't stop Nash. You can only hope to contain him."

Brazil's Leandro Barbosa added 17 points for Phoenix while Frenchman Boris Diaw contributed 12 more for the Suns, who had won nine road games in a row until meeting Minnesota.

It was the fifth road game in seven days for the Suns, who fell three games shy of matching the second-best win streak in NBA history and 16 short of the NBA record streak of 33 set by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1971-1972 season. "It's tough to lose, but you know, we didn't play that bad," Nash said. "I though Kevin was outstanding. They basically played a great game. I would much rather congratulate them and move on."

Phoenix managed only 17 points in the fourth quarter while Garnett himself scored 15 in the final period. The Timberwolves shot 59 percent from the field to set down the Suns. "You only get so many miracles," D'Antoni said. "It was our lack of scoring in the fourth. Whether we had tired legs or they did a great job in the zone, the result was that we didn't have enough."