MINNEAPOLIS — Whatever bad vibes are going around the Portland Trail Blazers' locker room, it might have transferred to the Timberwolves.
Portland dressed only eight players in Saturday's game at the Target Center. The likes of Damian Lillard to Jusuf Nurkic were missing for reasons such as injury, illness and rest. Such a depleted roster made the Wolves accomplishing their third consecutive victory — and thus beating the preseason Vegas over/under odds of 35 1/2 victories — seemed very likely.
And yet from the jump, the game wasn't as locked as initially thought, though the Wolves did eventually prevail, 135-121, on Saturday at Target Center, getting 36 points and 15 rebounds from Karl-Anthony Towns and improving to 36-29 on the season.
First, and this was an anticipated loss, guard Anthony Edwards missed his third game in a row because of left knee tendinopathy. Coach Chris Finch said Edwards had been working on a lot of "movement and strength stuff" as well as going through rehab treatments, including shockwave therapy. Finch added Edwards was responding "really well" to that regimen.
Somewhat unexpectedly joining Edwards on the inactive list was guard Patrick Beverley. Beverley was questionable while taking part in pregame warmups but couldn't seem to loosen up his sore right ankle enough to play. Finch said this wasn't an acute injury picked up in Friday's 138-101 victory at Oklahoma City, but rather an accumulation throughout the season, as evidenced by Finch being cautious with his late-game minutes recently.
Forward Taurean Prince only made it through the first half, labeled as doubtful to return out of halftime because of back spasms. Prince led the bench players with nine points, but he sported a therapy back brace on the sidelines toward the end of the second quarter.
But that wasn't the end to the Wolves' personnel woes. Malik Beasley was having a strong night. On just his second 3-pointer of the game about halfway through the first quarter, "Threesley" eclipsed Kevin Love for the team record of most 3s scored in a single season at 191. And he did it with 17 games still left in the regular season.
Beasley ended the night going 4 for 9 at the 3-point line and 16 total points. It could have been more, but he exited the game early about halfway through the third quarter, ejected with a technical foul for appearing to try to headbutt Drew Eubanks in an under-the-basket tussle.
Center Naz Reid was the final casualty, limping back to the locker room in the fourth quarter after tangling with a Portland player and appearing to hurt his right knee.
Finch turned to guard Josh Okogie to fill in some minutes in the last quarter-and-a-half while Portland continued to keep the game surprisingly close.
For example, the Wolves seemed to have established some momentum with back-to-back crowd-hyping plays in the first quarter. Jaden McDaniels stole the ball from CJ Elleby and launched a long pass to an open Towns for a dunk. McDaniels then blocked the Trail Blazers' next shot from Anfernee Simons, and Towns recovered it while McDaniels took off down the court. Another lobbed pass, this time from Towns, found McDaniels under the net for an alley-oop layup. That forced Portland to take a timeout down 30-26.
Yet somehow, that was the wake-up call the Trail Blazers needed, as they then went on a 19-6 run through about a four-minute span to end the first quarter and start the second.
An at-the-buzzer Towns floater took the Wolves into halftime down just one point at 64-63.
Despite losing Prince and Beasley in the third quarter, that's where the Wolves mustered their biggest lead, ending the period on a 15-7 run for a 109-101 lead. The Wolves never relinquished that lead.
Guard DeAngelo Russell had a double-double with 14 points and 15 assists. Jaylen Nowell contributed 22 points off the bench, with six total Wolves scoring in the double-digits.
