PORTLAND, Ore. – For a good portion of Tuesday night, the Trail Blazers were in the zone, as in a 2-3 zone on defense.
In the second half, Anthony Edwards was also in the zone, as in, he put the Wolves on his back on a night when little else was working.
Edwards willed a sluggish Wolves team to a 109-107 win over Portland with a dynamic fourth-quarter performance in which he took the game over. He finished with 40 points, 14 coming in the fourth when he converted a four-point play, hit another stepback three and a driving three-point play during a crucial stretch that turned a 90-87 Wolves deficit with 8 minutes, 4 seconds to play into a 106-97 lead with 3:06 to play.
Edwards had another brief injury scare after seeming to hurt his left calf, but after a brief stint on the bench, he returned, hit another shot and motioned to the crowd. It was the fourth 40-point performance of Edwards' career.
But the Blazers got back in it with a 7-0 run to cut it to two with 54.3 seconds left. D'Angelo Russell (22 points) hit one of two free throws to give the Wolves a 107-104 lead with 17.7 seconds left before C.J. McCollum (15 points) hit a 3 to tie it with 10.2 left. Russell drove to the basket and drew a goaltending call on a layup attempt from Anfernee Simons with 2.9 left. Simons missed a 3 before the buzzer.
Portland's Jusuf Nurkic got in foul trouble in the opening minutes of the third quarter, which helped ground Portland's offense to a halt after it led 63-55 at halftime. The Blazers had just 19 in the quarter. The Wolves got enough going late in the quarter to make a charge to take the lead 84-82 headed into the fourth. They closed the quarter on a 7-0 run, which included five from Edwards. He was just warming up.
_____
