Driven by Anthony Edwards' 37 points, Timberwolves thrash Trail Blazers, 127-102
Published in Basketball
MINNEAPOLIS — Dancing both beyond the 3-point line and on drives to the rim, Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards delivered his team a three-game winning streak and a 6-3 record with nine 3s made and 37 points scored in Friday’s 127-102 home victory over Portland.
Edwards went 12 for 22 from the field and 9 for 15 on 3-pointers during a game in which the Wolves made 22 3s on 50 attempts.
And he did it without playing in the fourth quarter.
“He makes the floor huge,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said of Edwards. “He’s got great range. He’s reading coverages really well. He’s adding not to just a lot of threes, but an efficient offense.”
Said Edwards in a postgame television interview: “I’m feeling great. I took shots within the flow of the game. I didn’t take any bad shots, so I’m feeling great.”
Through nine games this season, Edwards has had four games of at least 30 points, tied for the most in franchise history. Edwards also achieved the feat last year and Kevin Love did it in 2013-14.
The Wolves’ wire-to-wire victory came a night after they needed a fourth-quarter comeback to win 135-119 at Chicago. The Trail Blazers played Thursday night as well, losing at San Antonio before a long flight north for the second of back-to-back games.
Julius Randle added 22 points, meaning that for the seventh time this season he and Edwards both reached at least 20 points in a game — the most of any duo in the league.
Donte DiVincenzo made four 3-pointers, and Naz Reid made three.
The Target Center crowd cheered when Finch sent rookie Rob Dillingham into the game with the Wolves up by 25 points and less than six minutes left. A minute later, Finch sent more of his bench into the game.
The Wolves scored the game’s first 10 points over the first three-plus minutes and kept going.
They led by 20 before first quarter’s end and by as many as 27 before halftime, thanks to Sixth Man of the Year Reid’s scoring off the bench.
Reid had 10 points at the break and 15 by game’s end. DiVincenzo finished with 14.
The Blazers closed within single digits two minutes before halftime, but Edwards hit consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead back to 16 before the Blazers went into halftime trailing 64-51.
Edwards hit two more 3s back to back early in the third quarter for a 72-55 lead little more than three minutes into the third quarter.
Edwards left the floor and went toward the locker room midway through the third quarter having scored 26 points already, but he soon returned to the court.
Once back, he kept shooting — on step-back 3s and drives to the rim — and even turned playmaker, lobbing a long pass ahead to Randle for an uncontested layup and an 83-59 lead with less than five minutes left in the third quarter.
The Blazers arrived at Target Center on Friday night off the same back-to-back — only in reverse — travel that the Wolves dealt with last week.
The Blazers played Thursday night in San Antonio and flew to Minneapolis overnight while the Wolves flew from Minnesota to San Antonio last Friday night.
Both the Blazers and the Wolves lost the second game of their back-to-backs.
The Blazers also on Friday played their seventh game in 10 days, in seven different cities.
“It’s a tough little stretch for us,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said before Friday’s game. “For me, they’re all challenges you have to deal with. It shouldn’t be easy. Some teams will have to face it. It’s not just us. It’s a long trip. I don’t like to focus on those things with our guys. You don’t want to make an excuse for it.
“This is the best profession in the world. We chose this. If this is a tough stretch for you for a week, then you’re living pretty good.”
Friday’s game was the first of three games the two teams will play against each other in six days.
After the Wolves play Miami and the Blazers play Memphis, they’ll play consecutive games against each other in Portland next week.
Finch was asked before Friday’s game if he’s experienced something like that before.
“I was trying to figure that out, maybe,” Finch said. “We might have, but it seems wild. It becomes a little bit like a playoff series, making adjustments between games when you usually prepare for a game, prepare for a scout.
“You start at ground zero and take what you know from the last time you played a team. Playing these little series, they’re just like the playoffs. You make quick adjustments here and there and you move on.”
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