The Timberwolves took a double-digit lead on Saturday against the Celtics and had to hang on for dear life at the finish line. They took another double-digit lead Sunday against the Spurs, and for a change, they were able to win comfortably, securing a 125-112 victory at Target Center.
The Wolves went small, with center Rudy Gobert staying on the bench in the fourth quarter, and their offense hummed against a San Antonio team that was without its best defender in 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama.
Anthony Edwards finished with 32 points and became the Wolves’ franchise leader in 30-point games. Julius Randle had 22 points, 12 assists and six rebounds, while Naz Reid had 15 points and Donte DiVincenzo added 18.
“That’s part of the recipe for us to be good, is for him to be a high-assist guy and doing everything else as well,” Finch said of Randle.
De’Aaron Fox led the Spurs with 25 points. San Antonio played its seventh game in a row without Wembanyama because of a left calf strain.
With Edwards off the floor to start the fourth quarter, coach Chris Finch went with a Randle-Reid frontcourt, and the Wolves flipped a four-point deficit into a 103-98 lead just 3 minutes, 35 seconds into the quarter. Reid had six points during that spurt.
Coming out of a Spurs timeout, the Wolves kept pouring it on, with Randle making multiple great passes to either find open cutters, like when he set up Donte DiVincenzo for a layup, or start a chain of good ball movement that resulted in a Mike Conley corner three.
It was a 25-7 run as the Spurs called multiple timeouts to stop the bleeding, and the Wolves defense finally found its footing to get stops at the defensive end after struggling for three quarters.
