Anthony Edwards scored 27 points and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-101 on Monday in a matchup of teams that entered the night tied atop the Western Conference standings.
“I think it was a great game,” Edwards said. “Great effort by both teams. Great job by both coaches. I feel like we just made more plays down the stretch.”
Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert added 12 points and 17 rebounds for Minnesota, which had lost three of five.
"We had some games we probably felt like we should not have let slip away, and we did, so I think we needed a win like that to get our swagger back," head coach Chris Finch told Chad Hartman on WCCO Tuesday. "Now we got to keep doing it. We've got a bunch of good teams coming in here this week."
Edwards did his damage on 10-for-20 shooting.
“Anthony did a really good job with picking his spots, trusting his teammates, playing clean and quick, getting downhill, putting the pressure on them,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 37 points and Jalen Williams added 20 for the Thunder, who lost their second straight after a five-game win streak.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault called this one an “elevated game” for its intensity. There were 24 lead changes and six ties.
The teams split four meetings this season.
“It’s why we play the game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “You play to play the best teams in the league. You wake up for games like that. You really get to test yourself and see where you are. It was a dogfight tonight.”
Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, one of the NBA’s top rookies and grad of Minneapolis' Minnehaha Academy, finished with just four points on 2-for-9 shooting in 32 minutes.
“We did a good job of defending him and just made him take tough shots, and I could see it for him, you know, he was trying to get his teammates open, so he was just playing team basketball,” Towns said.
The Thunder led 97-96 with 2:43 remaining before Minnesota took control. A two-handed dunk by Edwards down the middle of the lane in traffic put the Timberwolves up 101-97, and Minnesota led by at least four the rest of the way.
Minnesota led 49-47 at halftime behind 13 points apiece from Edwards and Towns.
Edwards hit a 3-pointer two minutes into the second half to put the Timberwolves up 56-47.
NO CONLEY AGAIN
The Timberwolves again played without their floor leader, Mike Conley, who is battling some hamstring tightness. Finch said it showed something that the team came through without him on the floor late.
"We went to Boston, and lost a game in OT, played our guts out, with out Rudy (Gobert) and Mike," Finch says. "That built our confidence there. Everything we didn't do in Boston, we did last night. Nothing is more satisfying for a coach. You keep stubbing your toe then you have these a-ha moments. Hopefully now we can draw on this experience."
In Minnesota's recent losses, a lack of execution late cost them wins and Finch was pleased with what he saw in the last two minutes Monday night.
“We really did a good job of finishing this game, which we haven’t been doing,” Finch said. “So hopefully it’s a good step and we can build on that part of it.”
OFFICIATED AND "COMPLAINING"
After the game, Edwards expressed a little displeasure with the officials. “I'm (gonna) take this fine, but the refs did not give us no calls tonight," he said on Bally Sports North's postgame interview referring to the NBA policy of fining players or coaches who are critical of officiating. He was especially upset about his late-game dunk where replays clearly showed Gilgeous-Alexander hanging on his arm.
"They don't want to be gamed either. If you're complaining all the time, then when you actually are fouled they're a little hesitant to see the play because they've been dealing with it all game," Finch told WCCO. "It's something we talk to our guys about a lot. I thought we started the season pretty good. You know, it's kicked up here recently. Some of it is dropping some wins we should have had and that stuff. It's a lot harder to referee than ever before, with HD television, with replay, with social media blasts, I feel for those guys."
Finch adds that for Edwards, it's a part of the game he still has to adjust to, especially the way he plays the game.
"I feel like he's kind of targeted, but he gets hit a lot," Finch said. "As a ball-dominant, very aggressive guy who attacks the basket at a high level, he's not going to get every whistle. It's no different from when a guy like Shaq played, he probably got fouled on every single play at one point or another. You have to hope they get more right than wrong and to that point, they're humans and you have to play through that sensibility. It's a learning curve for him."
WCCO's Henry Lake told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News that Edwards needs to be careful about how much he has complained about officials.
"I know that on that dunk he got fouled, and if you go back and look at the replay and you look at the different photographs of that, Gilgeous-Alexander is grabbing Anthony Edwards' arm, or hand, as he's making that spectacular play," says Lake. "Now, this is a slippery slope though. And I don't want Anthony Edwards to get caught up in the officiating part of this. There are games where you're going to get calls. There are games where you're not going to get calls. Don't get caught up in that. Let Chris Finch handle that. Just don't harp on it so much because then the officials start to look at you differently."
“It’s hard just getting adjusted to,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Now, with that being said, the NBA doesn’t care. Your opponents don’t care. Nobody cares. You’ve got to fight through it and get it done.”
UP NEXT
Timberwolves: Host the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.