Timberwolves snap two-game skid by beating Wizards
It’s become abundantly clear Mike Conley is important to the Timberwolves. It became even more evident after an ugly loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday.
Conley was ruled out again ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena in Washington due to an illness. That meant the Timberwolves were left to recover from Monday's disappointing loss — which Conley also missed for a rest day — without their starting point guard in the lineup.
The Timberwolves were able to close a game without him, beating the Wizards 118-107, their first win over Washington since Nov. 2, 2019. At the same time, his presence was missed as Minnesota struggled to find an offensive rhythm, particularly early on.
Still, the win put an end to a two-game losing streak.
The Timberwolves (31-13) came up empty on their first two offensive possessions while the Wizards (7-36) got two quick dunks to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Chris Finch, clearly not liking what he saw early on from his team, called a quick timeout.
Minnesota recovered to take a 30-24 lead by the end of the frame, but its poor shooting paired with the opposite from Washington, particularly from Deni Avdija, quickly erased the Timberwolves’ advantage. Avdija scored 15 points in the half as the Wizards took a 59-57 lead into the halftime break.
"We couldn't buy a bucket until the last second. It seemed like a lid was on the rim," Karl-Anthony Towns said in his postgame, on-court interview. "But we did a good job just to keep fighting, keep shooting. Stay confident. I thought we did a good job of finding different ways to score. Three ball wasn't falling for us today."
The Timberwolves shot just 9 of 32 from deep, but Towns and Anthony Edwards got to the rim and were aggressive attacking the paint in the second half, helping the Wolves get their overall shooting numbers up to 42% (42 of 100). Minnesota had 23 more shot attempts than Washington.
Avdija hit a 3-pointer early in the third quarter to put the Wizards up five, their largest lead of the contest, before the Timberwolves started to take care of business.
Edwards and Towns picked timely moments to attack. Jaden McDaniels ran the floor in transition and hit shots when he needed to. Naz Reid got in on the action by drilling a 3-pointer. The Timberwolves were up by 12 by the end of the third quarter of play behind big efforts from Edwards and Towns.
"I really like the (Edwards-Towns) combo tonight, felt like it was in rhythm," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters postgame.
The Wizards were able to cut the Timberwolves' lead back to seven in the fourth quarter, but Minnesota never put itself in any danger, making baskets when it needed to down the stretch. Many of those came from Edwards and Towns, who finished with 38 and 27 points, respectively. Rudy Gobert also made timely buckets, finishing the night with 19 points and 16 rebounds.
Final key stats
- Anthony Edwards: 38 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal
- Karl-Anthony Towns: 27 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block
- Rudy Gobert: 19 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks, 1 assist
- Jaden McDaniels: 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
- Deni Avdija: 24 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists
- Kyle Kuzma: 17 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 block
- Marvin Bagley III: 17 points, 15 rebounds, 1 steal
