Timberwolves overcome Stephen Curry’s 39 points, Anthony Edwards’ absence to beat Warriors

SAN FRANCISCO – The Timberwolves were missing their star guard Friday night, and two others as well. But they were able to beat the Warriors thanks largely to a big game from someone who was absent for the end of their previous one.

Rudy Gobert had 24 points and 14 rebounds, and the Wolves beat the Warriors 127-120 on Friday night without the services of the injured Anthony Edwards.

“Really good character win by us,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said in his postgame news conference.

Gobert, who was ejected in the second half of Monday’s loss to Phoenix after committing a flagrant-2 foul on the Suns’ Mark Williams, shot 11-for-13 from the floor, including the go-ahead dunk with 75 seconds to play after the Wolves fell behind by a point with 1:37 to go. That started a final 10-2 Wolves run in a closely contested game that featured 27 lead changes, tied for second-most in the NBA this season.

“Rudy was huge,” Finch said. “... He finished extremely well, strong, a bunch of dunks. Played great through all the contact there. He was outstanding defensively in everything we did; switched with them, chased with them. It was one of his best defensive efforts of the season, for sure.”

Donte DiVincenzo made two big three-pointers down the stretch, including one with 27.4 seconds remaining to give the Wolves a five-point lead, and finished with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists. Julius Randle had 27 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Wolves, making 11 of 12 free throws, and Naz Reid added 18 points and seven assists while Jaden McDaniels had 17 points and five assists.

“Tonight, we just settled down at the right time, trusting one another,” DiVincenzo told reporters in the locker room. “We made big plays. When we stay together, we stay composed, it doesn’t matter who we have on the floor.”

Trailing 91-88 after three quarters, the Wolves grabbed momentum in the fourth. They used a 17-0 run in the final period to lead by 12 with 5:50 to go, before Curry and Moses Moody connected on back-to-back three-pointers to pull the Warriors to 108-104.

“When we were up 12, I was telling the guys, ‘Finish the game,’ ” Randle said in the locker room. “Because I’ve seen this story before with them. Like, Steph will go on a run, get really hot. No lead is safe with them.”

Golden State took its first lead of the fourth quarter with 2:09 left on Curry’s step-back three, and Moody’s steal and layup put them up 117-114. But DiVincenzo responded with a tying three-pointer. Curry was fouled with 1:37 left but made only one of two free throws, and Gobert followed with his dunk from a feed from McDaniels for his sixth and final field goal in as many attempts in the fourth quarter.

“It was great to see,” DiVincenzo said of Gobert. “He has touch around the rim, but when he explodes to the rim and is a force, it just changes the dynamic of our offense.”

The Wolves won despite missing both Edwards (right foot soreness) and Mike Conley (right Achilles tendinopathy) from their backcourt. Bones Hyland made his 11th NBA start and first with the Wolves, but he only played 4:39 before missing the rest of the game because of a right knee contusion. Terrence Shannon Jr. played 30:29 off the bench, scoring nine points.

Edwards missed his fifth game of the season after a right hamstring strain cost him four games in late October and early November. The Wolves improved to 3-2 without him in the lineup.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 127, Golden State 120

NBA standings

Meanwhile, they overcame a Warriors team that saw Curry return without a minutes restriction, according to coach Steve Kerr. The Wolves beat the Warriors in five games in the second round of the playoffs this past spring after Curry suffered a hamstring injury in the second quarter of Golden State’s Game 1 victory that sidelined him for the rest of the series.

Friday night’s game, which was added to the schedule for teams that did not make it out of the group stage of the NBA Cup, was the first meeting between the teams since that series. It’s also the Wolves’ only road game during a stretch in which they play seven out of eight games at home.