Knicks top Timberwolves 112-106 as Julius Randle outduels Anthony Edwards

NEW YORK – Monday's game was always a dangerous one for the Timberwolves looming on their schedule — an afternoon start on New Year's Day in New York City.

Whether or not the Wolves took advantage of that fortunate timing the previous night, their play in the second and third quarters made it seem like they did, as those two quarters doomed them to a 112-106 loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

"We were flat in the first half. I don't know what it was," Wolves coach Chris Finch said. "We didn't have our best game. Didn't have our 'A' game. But I was pleased that we fought back into the game even when we got down big."

The Wolves had one of their worst quarters of the season in the second, which they lost 38-17. They looked lethargic defensively as the Knicks burned them on several back cuts and they looked careless or disinterested offensively, resulting in seven turnovers. The Knicks also grabbed six offensive rebounds to the Wolves' seven defensive boards in that quarter. Rebounding hasn't been as big a problem for the Wolves this season as it has been in recent years, but that cost them Monday.

"They were basically just punking us on the glass, mostly," Finch said of the second quarter. "Then hit us on some cuts and stuff like that. But second-chance points were what really put separation in the game."

The Knicks, who are second in offensive rebounding percentage, finished with 22 second-chance points.

Little-used guard Jordan McLaughlin and center Karl-Anthony Towns sparked a fourth-quarter comeback that cut a 22-point deficit to four, but the Wolves had taken too long to start playing well.

Towns rebounded from his recent struggles with 29 points, playing with five fouls for much of the fourth quarter. Guard Anthony Edwards had 35, but scored only four points in the fourth, two when the game was all but over. McLaughlin ignited a 12-0 run shortly after entering late in the third and finished with nine points and three assists in 12 minutes. He is making a case that he deserves more playing time.

"He's now played in three of the last handful of games, and every single time he's come in and had a super positive impact," Finch said. "… We still believe that position [the ninth man in the rotation] could be situational, but if somebody comes and takes it, then somebody comes and takes it and it looks like J-Mac is on his way to doing that right now."

But that spirited fourth, when the Wolves got as close as four, wasn't enough as Julius Randle made some tough shots in the final minutes. Randle led the Knicks with 39 points, which included nearly all of New York's scoring in clutch time. Jalen Brunson had 16 points and 14 assists while OG Anunoby had 17 in his Knicks debut after arriving in a weekend trade from Toronto.

To point guard Mike Conley, the Wolves offense bled over to its defense too often Monday, especially in the second and third quarters.

"When our offense is stagnant, the ball is sticky, I think it leads to turnovers, leads to transition opportunities," Conley said. "They played with pace during that time and we were caught mismatching, getting back to guys, but our offense is a big part of what we do, especially defensively. I think that second quarter, we just didn't have enough movement, which caused us on that other end to lose track of what we were doing."

The Wolves are navigating a stretch of their schedule that might be the most unforgiving of the season when it comes to quality of opponents and travel. The Wolves finished Game 11 of a 16-game stretch against above-.500 teams, with 11 coming on the road. But they are 7-4 in this stretch and return home Wednesday for their fourth and final matchup with the Pelicans, when they will try to prevent their first two-game losing streak of the season.

Monday's game felt like games they dropped during that stretch to New Orleans and Philadelphia — they were too inconsistent, and that wasn't going to work against a good team playing at full strength.

"Give them credit, they made shots," Towns said. "They moved the ball, did a good job of attacking the paint and I think in my eyes, from what I saw, not forcing too many shots. … They put us in a bind, but we just kept fighting the whole game."