PHOENIX (NBA.com exclusive)  --  Adding a player who has averaged, routinely, 20-plus points -- and who can explode at any time for 30-plus -- to a basketball team averaging 116 points, seems almost unfair.

But that's the luxury the Suns enjoyed when Jason Richardson -- suspended for the first two games because of a drunk-driving incident shortly after he arrived from Charlotte last season -- made his season debut Sunday night.

Richardson had 23 points -- including 4-of-7 on 3-pointers -- in the Suns' 120-112 win over the visiting Timberwolves.

Richardson no doubt is the Suns' designated gunner, though coach Alvin Gentry hesitates to use the term.

Gentry acknowledges, "We give him a lot of freedom."

Last year, after the early season trade, Richardson found himself on a team with such established stars as Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O'Neal and Grant Hill.

"He probably thought, 'At best, I'm the fifth option,'" Gentry figures.

Still, he had a number of quarter-long explosions, and "I don't think I did a great job of keeping him engaged in the game," Gentry says.

When he goes off in the future, "We'll make sure...that he continues to get touches."

Richardson said he was "anxious" after the suspension, saying his two misses were "really disappointing."

But he wasn't rusty.

"I was working hard the two games I was out."

Richardson's game can be both tantalizing and exasperating.

There he is flying high to the hoop and laying the ball in before the T-Wolves realizing what is happening. And there, seven seconds later is the 'Wolves Corey Brewer, the guy Richardson is supposed to be guarding, doing the same thing at the other end.

That is the Suns' general dilemma.

"For us, make no mistake, the strength of our team is our offense," Gentry says. What we're trying to get defensively is just consistency, where everyone is in the right spot.

"I don't know if we'll ever be the Spurs or the Celtics, but I don't know if they'll ever be us offensively, either."

Richardson's presence gives a glimpse of the firepower the under-the-radar Suns possess.

All their expected rotation players now are in action except the defensive-minded big man Robin Lopez; he'll be out a few more weeks with a foot injury.

A big part of that scoring prowess comes from Channing Frye, who appears to be both a revelation and one of the best off-season acquisitions in the NBA.

Frye, a jump-shooting big man who didn't play a great deal for the Trail Blazers the past two seasons, had a game-high 25 points.

Frye, who is replacing Shaquille O'Neal in the Suns' starting lineup, is averaging 19.7 points through three games.

He is trying to make the adjustment from a role player to one who has the green light to shoot.

On Sunday, he hit 6-of-10 on 3-point tries. But Gentry said Frye "probably should have gotten up 15" 3-pointers.

"We did not bring him here to be a passer," Gentry said.

On the downside, Leandro Barbosa, who had averaged 20.5 points starting in place of Richardson, had his role reduced. He played only 15 minutes and had six points while hitting all three of his shots.

"There will be a lot of games where (Barbosa) and J-Rich will be on the floor together," Gentry said.

The win marked only the sixth time in the Suns' 42-season history that they've started 3-0. But in a most negative note, this game was the first since March 1, 2006 that the Suns failed to sell out.

The Suns led throughout the second half but didn't really put it away until Grant Hill (23 points) hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with 3:00 left to make it 113-105.

For the Timberwolves (1-2), the game was significant because Al Jefferson showed flashes of his old dominant form. Jefferson, coming off a torn ACL in his right knee suffered Feb. 8th, had been averaging 10.5 points on anemic 30 percent shooting.

Coach Kurt Rambis sounded sympathetic before the game, noting that players coming back from such an injury can take a year before "everything starts to feel normal again."

"He's still struggling with his conditioning, his timing, his rhythm, adjusting to his weight loss, to the new style of ball that we're playing," Rambis said. "Right now, he's impatient. He's putting a lot of pressure on himself to get back to playing the way he knows he can play."

But there's something about the Suns that invigorates Jefferson, who regularly would eat up Stoudmire and company. (Jefferson once had a franchise record 12 offensive rebounds vs. the Suns).

He finished with 21 points, though he shot a modest 9-of-23, plus eight rebounds.

Rambis switched up and went with Ryan Gomes at the small forward, with Oleksiy Pecherov at the "four" spot.

Gomes, who had been listed as the starting power forward, exploded for 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Pecherov, who had been coming off the bench, had eight points and seven boards.

More experiments are sure to follow.

"We have to find guys who can fit," said Rambis, who is introducing the triangle offense as part of the Wolves' approach. "It wasn't going to be resolved in training camp or the pre-season. It's going to take a good chunk of the season."