Timberwolves defeat Spurs on a night of pain and anguish

With 1 minute, 58 seconds remaining in the second quarter Tuesday night, Anthony Edwards tried to cut and ended up turning his left ankle. He stayed on the ground and needed help going to the locker room.

Already down Karl-Anthony Towns, who was out for personal reasons to mourn the death of a friend, the Wolves looked as though they might be down both of their leading scorers.

But Edwards’ teammate, Naz Reid, wasn’t worried. He, and those who follow the Wolves regularly, have seen this from Edwards.

“I called it a Paul Pierce moment,” Reid said with a laugh, referencing the time Pierce had to be carried off the floor in a finals game only to return moments later. “I’m never really worried.”

As he has several times in the past, Edwards gave fans a scare only to return minutes later and lead the Wolves to a win, this time 114-105 over the Spurs. Edwards had 34 points to help make up for the absence of Towns, while Reid was making jokes about Edwards and baskets, too; Reid finished with 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting.

“He’s tough enough, he’ll come back,” Reid said. “That’s kind of like a joke that I always tell with him and Kyle [Anderson], like, ‘You ain’t tired,’ or ‘You’re not hurt.’ "

He was, at least initially, but Edwards said once he got treatment at halftime, he was fine.

“It was bothering me a little bit,” Edwards said. “But once you get out there and the adrenaline rush, it goes away.”

The adrenaline was pumping in the third quarter, especially during one sequence when Edwards hit a corner three, got a steal then went down for a dunk. He hopped up and down with a smile like nothing was wrong, when just minutes earlier, he’d been grimacing on the floor in pain.

Edwards said he should be fine for Wednesday’s game against Memphis.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 114, San Antonio 105

NBA standings

The Wolves coasted to the finish line Tuesday after building a 24-point lead -- a lead the Spurs cut to six inside of a minute to play, but the Wolves had built too big a lead to blow it.

“You could see the energy drop; the purpose and intensity drop,” coach Chris Finch said. “Down on numbers, guys are tired or whatever, but I just told them, ‘We got to be better at closing that game out.’”

The Wolves also lost forward Anderson in the game to left hamstring tightness, but they got key contributions from their bench. Not only did Reid have his best offensive game in a while, Jordan McLaughlin pitched in nine points and three assists while Monte Morris had eight points and four assists. Nickeil Alexander-Walker (eight points, six assists) was a plus-18 on the night in nearly 30 minutes, even though he shot 0-for-5 from three-point range.

Then there were the Wolves’ dependable veterans in Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley. Gobert had 13 points and 17 rebounds and got a couple of dunks over fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama (17 points, 13 rebounds). The Wolves turned 23 San Antonio turnovers into 30 points.

“I thought we were really good,” Finch said of the team’s defense. “As soon as they put the ball on the deck, whether it was Wembanyama or anyone else, we kind of went after it, swarmed it a bit. It shows our activity. We’ve talked a lot recently about getting more 50-50 balls.”

Speaking of 50-50, the Wolves (41-17) won their 41st game of the season, meaning they can do no worse than winning 50% of their games this season, should absolute disaster strike the rest of the season. They’ve had a propensity to avoid disaster this season, with Edwards and his injury luck at the top of that list.

“He gets me every time,” Gobert said. “Every time, I’m like, ‘Damn.’ And then I come into the treatment room, and he’s tying his shoes and getting ready to come back.”