Anthony Edwards scores 49 as Wolves pull away to beat short-handed Bulls

Anthony Edwards was closing in on 50 points.

Sitting at 48 points with 2 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in Wednesday night's game against the Chicago Bulls, the Minnesota Timberwolves star got to the free-throw line, where he hadn't missed a shot all night. The sold-out Target Center crowd in Minneapolis was chanting "MVP" as he stepped to the line. Then Edwards missed the front end.

He made the second to get to 49 points, which would be his final total in a 127-108 victory over the Bulls.

Getting to 50 points was the only thing Edwards couldn't do Wednesday night. He scored 20 of those 49 points in the third quarter when the Wolves were in the midst of a dogfight with the Bulls. He also contributed nine rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block. But as Edwards approached 50, he missed three layups and had his only miss from the line.

"I think he kind of took off in the third quarter," said Naz Reid, who had a great all-around game with 22 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, a pair of blocks and a steal. "Couldn't make that last free throw."

It didn't matter at that point. The Wolves (28-23) had already put away the short-handed Bulls (22-30), who were without Lonzo Ball, Zach Collins, Talen Horton-Tucker, Kevin Huerter, Tre Jones, Adama Sanogo and Dalen Terry, all ruled out due to injury or coach's decision. Being that undermanned, Chicago struggled mightily from the jump. On the first possession of the game, the Wolves grabbed four offensive rebounds, and the sequence was capped with a Jaden McDaniels 3.

Bulls coach Billy Donovan called a timeout just 36 seconds into the contest, but the offensive momentum didn't stop early for the Wolves as they built a lead as large as 21 points. Edwards scored 14 points in a 39-point opening frame. The effort on the offensive glass was key for Minnesota, which eventually found itself in a dogfight with Chicago as the Bulls battled back to take leads in both the second and third quarters; the Wolves led by just two at half and four after three quarters.

But the Wolves pulled down 23 offensive rebounds that turned into 35 second-chance points. Rudy Gobert was the driver of that effort, grabbing nine of his game-high 15 boards on the offensive end. Gobert also had 10 points and three blocks.

"(Gobert) got a lot of timely ones," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. "Kind of set the tone early. I think we had three or four in the first possession, so that was nice. (Gobert) was there to clean up a lot of downhill drives that we didn't make."

In a battle of a game, there were some low points. Edwards picked up his 12th technical foul of the season early in the third quarter; if a player gets 16 techs in a season, it's an automatic one-game suspension. Later in the third quarter, McDaniels picked up a tech of his own, a completely unnecessary one, for keeping the ball away from the officials.

But despite some of the frustrations and the lack of ability to slow down the Bulls, the Wolves started to pull away in the fourth quarter, going on a 13-2 run that pushed their lead back to 17. Colby White led the Bulls with 20 points.

Edwards didn't end up getting his 50 points, but it was the 13th 40-point game of his career, which tied him with Karl-Anthony Towns for the most 40-plus-point games in franchise history. He got a rousing ovation from the crowd when he was subbed off with 59 seconds remaining as Finch emptied the bench. Edwards didn't care about the 50 in the end.

"I wanted to get 50, but it's not like, 'Ah, man,'" Edwards said. "I'll be alright."