Anthony Edwards scores 40 as Timberwolves bounce past Dallas 122-111

The Timberwolves enter the final third of their season with the third toughest schedule in the league, by opponent winning percentage.

There aren’t many gimmes the rest of the way, but one of them came in their first game out of the All-Star break against the Dallas Mavericks, who were without an injured Cooper Flagg, the top pick in last summer’s draft.

In typical Wolves fashion, they couldn’t quite take care of business decisively against a bad team, but they came away with a 122-111 victory Friday night at Target Center after Dallas tied the game in the fourth.

Anthony Edwards led the Wolves with 40 points. He went on a run to lift his team to a 111-105 lead with 4 minutes, 48 seconds to play, then took over, hitting from the midrange and deep. He scored 14 fourth-quarter points.

Naz Reid had 21 off the bench while Rudy Gobert had 22 points and 17 rebounds.

But Gobert faces another one-game suspension after picking up another flagrant foul.

Sometimes, after long layoffs, offenses can come out a bit sluggish or sticky. The Wolves bucked that tendency with a first quarter that saw them jump out to a 40-25 lead.

Randle never got into a groove all night (4-for-15, 13 points).

Donte DiVincenzo set the tone by hitting all three of his three-point attempts in the first quarter. He also added four assists. But he didn’t get another shot attempt until the third quarter as the ball movement dried up.

Reid had six points, including the most thunderous dunk of his career over Mavericks center Daniel Gafford.

Reid yelled and flexed after the dunk so long that Bones Hyland had to grab him to get back on defense. The Target Center scoreboard showed the replay multiple times through the rest of the quarter.

Edwards got going in the second quarter (6-for-10, 17 points), but his teammates were just 4-for-19, allowing Dallas to hang around down just 12 at the half. The Mavericks got as close as two in the third quarter before the Wolves got into their bench and ended the quarter ahead 96-88. But Dallas kept up the pressure, and eventually tied the game 103-103 with 6:55 to play in the fourth.

While Gobert was able to finish the game, he will face a one-game suspension for the Wolves’ game against Philadelphia on Sunday.

Gobert is now up to seven flagrant foul points on the season. League rules say for every flagrant foul a player gets above that threshold, he will serve a two-game suspension. Gobert’s flagrant foul points will reset for the playoffs, but if he picks up another flagrant foul in Game 81 or 82 of the regular season, that suspension will carry over to the postseason.

The Wolves are a deeper team for a few reasons coming out of the All-Star break: They added Ayo Dosunmu and brought back Mike Conley, and Terrence Shannon Jr. was also healthy enough to play for the first time since Dec. 25 as he is fully recovered from a foot injury.

With his full bench available, coach Chris Finch went nine deep in the first half while the game was still competitive. Reid, Dosunmu and Hyland were the first three off the bench in that order, while rookie center Joan Beringer was the ninth man.

Beringer began the second quarter and played four minutes. He had played well (nine points, four rebounds) the last time the Wolves played the Mavericks.