Timberwolves edge Pacers in home opener after Anthony Edwards departs early with an injury

Last season at this time, the Timberwolves were going through the awkward getting-to-know-you-phase in the aftermath of trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. It took about three months.

Losing Anthony Edwards early in a game then, as the Wolves did Sunday night when he left after only three minutes because of right hamstring tightness, might have meant a long night.

But a year later, the familiarity with which the Wolves now have playing with one another — and Julius Randle’s comfort in his role here — helped the Wolves pull out a 114-110 victory over the shorthanded but still feisty Indiana Pacers.

When Edwards went out, Randle knew exactly what to do. He had hit his first two shots before Edwards’ exit, and he felt comfortable handling the role of primary scorer with 31 points.

“We don’t have to overreact, just do what we’ve been doing,” Randle said.

“Naturally, the ball is going to find me a little bit more,” he continued. “So, it doesn’t change my mentality as far as trying to play the right way and make the right play. If they’re guarding me straight up, try to score. If they get in the gaps, help or double team, trust my teammates.”

Randle makes that all sound simple, but getting to this point was a laborious one. It took those early struggles to feel out his role, and when he sat out for weeks because of a groin injury, he identified where he could make his impact as a playmaker in the offense. That catapulted to the best postseason basketball of his career in the two series the Wolves won, and on nights like Sunday, Randle’s comfort — and the team’s comfort around him — enabled the Wolves to get a victory when Edwards left.

A tougher test awaits Monday night in a revamped Denver team, and coach Chris Finch didn’t have an update on Edwards’ status after the game. But the Wolves should be able to tread water should Edwards have to miss time thanks in part to the familiarity they have with one another. It helped them overcome the Pacers, whose disciplined style of fast-pace play kept them in it despite injuries to key players like Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, T.J. McConnell and Bennedict Mathurin.

It wasn’t just Randle stepping up to compensate for Edwards’ injury. Rudy Gobert had 14 points and 18 rebounds after he wasn’t much of a factor on offense in the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. When asked whether the Wolves would lose a game like this last season, Gobert said, “probably.”

“I thought we did a great job staying aggressive. We did a great job, for the most part, making plays for one another and moving the ball. We kept running,” he said. “We kept playing with a lot of pace, and we kept guarding at a very high level.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 114, Indiana 110

NBA standings

“I felt like I’m probably back on track,” Reid said. “... That’s the team that we are, that’s our identity. So, we got to go out there and be able to do that every night, not just against guys who are a banged-up team, things like that. So, it’s got to matter to us every night.”

The question is how many nights will they have to do it without Edwards, who has never played fewer than 72 games in his career. But they won’t use his absence as an excuse to backslide.

“I think we can all pick up the load and do what we do best,” Reid said.