Takeaways: Timberwolves figure out how to take on Victor Wembanyama at the end in 104-103 victory over Spurs

At two crucial moments of the Timberwolves’ 104-103 victory over the Spurs on Sunday, Jan. 11, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle found themselves matched up against Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 basketball prodigy who is only gaining power in what figures to be a long, dominant career in the NBA.

The two Wolves stars had similar, almost hopeless reactions. Edwards found himself one-on-one against Wembanyama with the Wolves down one needing a bucket to take the lead.

Edwards felt an emotion he rarely feels in those situations.

“You ain’t see me? I was like, ‘Damn! Do I got the shot? Do I drive on him?’ I was confused,” Edwards said. “I ain’t never been confused. I ain’t going to lie.”

Then on the final defensive possession, even after stopping Wembanyama a few times previously, Randle said he did one thing while trying to defend Wembanyama: pray.

“All you can do is pray,” Randle said. “Try to get a good contest and pray. So I’m not about to sit here and block your shots. I was trying to play solid defense, be physical and try to play without fouling.”

Both ended up succeeding. Edwards found his way around Wembanyama for the deciding bucket with 16.8 seconds to play. Edwards hit a floater from the right side off the glass on a night where offense was hard to come by for the Wolves.

“We kind of talked before the game, ‘Hey, let’s let them start feeling good about themselves. Get up 16-0,’” joked assistant Micah Nori, who filled in as head coach for an ill Chris Finch. “No, I mean we couldn’t buy a shot.”

But they figured it out eventually. It marked one of the toughest performances of the season, a night they didn’t let the bad start overwhelm them. The crowd, which stands until the Wolves score their first buck, was on its feet until Edwards scored the first two of his 23 points at the 7:21 mark.

But at the end, they were back on their feet in celebration of an impressive victory over one of the NBA’s best teams.

“Unbelievable, man,” Randle said of the atmosphere. “We needed it. Felt like a playoff game, to be honest, when we’re making that run coming back in the fourth quarter. Every stop, it seemed like they got more into it. Every bucket or huge shot that we made, they got more into it. So we definitely fed off their energy. To cap it off with a defensive stop, it was electric.”

The responsibility for guarding Wembanyama (29 points) down the stretch fell more to Randle (15 points), than Rudy Gobert, who committed a flagrant foul on his fellow Frenchman early in the fourth quarter. Randle tried to get in Wembanyama’s space without fouling.

“I feel like he thought I was going to take a jump shot, for sure,” Edwards said. “He probably would’ve blocked that, so I had to drive him.”

Because of that flagrant foul Gobert committed, he will be suspended for the Jan. 13 game at Milwaukee.

Gobert now has accumulated six flagrant foul points in the season, which results in a one-game suspension. Every flagrant foul Gobert receives for the rest of the season will be a two-game suspension.

“It’s tough, because I try to be contesting shots in the heat of the moment,” Gobert said. “I don’t think there’s at any time an intention of getting anybody hurt or putting people in dangerous situations. It’s tough. But got to play through it.”

Gobert also picked up a technical foul in the aftermath of the play, which was a reckless closeout while Wembanyama was shooting a three-pointer with 7 minutes, 24 seconds to play. The score was 87-81 Spurs and Wembanyama hit four free throws: three for the foul and one for the technical.

Gobert later committed an away-from-the-play foul on Wembanyama, which resulted in a free throw with the Wolves down 95-93 and 3:54 left.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 104, San Antonio 103

NBA standings

The Wolves said Terrence Shannon Jr., who has missed the past eight games because of a left foot abductor hallucis strain, will continue his rehabilitation process but remain out.

The Wolves had previously said Shannon would be re-evaluated in two weeks and provide an update on his progress. Sunday marked that update.