The Timberwolves ended a six-game home losing streak and presented newly hired coach Chris Finch with his first Target Center victory Sunday, 114-112 over Portland.
One night after a 125-121 loss to the same opponent and on the same court, the Wolves limited Portland star Damian Lillard to a mere 38-point night, They did so after Wolves No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards himself scored a career-high 34 points, as short as that career might be so far.
The Blazers cut a 14-point deficit with fewer than five minutes to play to just five points at 104-99 with two minutes left, 106-104 with 40 seconds left after Gary Trent Jr. was fouled on a three-point shot and made all of them.
The Wolves retained possession with 29.7 seconds left after Wolves guard Ricky Rubio received a charging foul that was video reversed to a blocking call on Lillard.
Rubio made both free throws for a 108-104 lead they never again surrendered, even after Lillard made three free throws with 10 seconds left. The Wolves scored all their points on free throws in the final two-plus minutes. They made 21 of their final 22 free throws after they started the game 8-for-17.
Most of Edwards' points came with that usual smile on his face despite leaving the game temporarily when he banged Blazers big man Enes Kanter hard late in the third quarter.
The Wolves' last home victory was Jan. 31 over Cleveland.
Eighteen of Edwards' points came on six three-point shots, the second-to-last a thunderous slam with little more than four minutes left. Those six threes are a career high as well.
Lillard didn't score a point in the second quarter – only his sixth time in a quarter this season -- and didn't make a three-point shot until the third quarter. Yet he had 24 points by third quarter's end and after he made three threes – his first all night – and scored 14 of his points in that third quarter alone.
Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns scared fans watching from home when he fell hard to the floor midway through the third quarter and came up wincing and flexing his troublesome left wrist with the Wolves leading 61-58.
He missed both free throws he earned on the play, but stayed in the game.
Just 24 hours after they committed seven first-quarter turnovers and trailed Portland 28-15 in the first eight minutes, the Wolves led 6-2 and 11-6 early Sunday.
They did so on a night when the Trail Blazers made just one of their first 10 shots. The Blazers didn't lead until they took a 33-30 lead four minutes in the second quarter. The Wolves committed just five first-half turnovers on Sunday – and none of them turned into points by Portland.
The Wolves played without rookie forward Jared McDaniels, who missed Sunday's game because of the NBA's coronavirus health and safety protocols.
Without him, new Wolves coach Chris Finch turned to Juancho Hernangomez for a team whose reserves scored 122 points in their two previous games, 72 in a runaway victory at New Orleanso and 50 in Saturday's loss.
Finch called upon Hernangomez in Saturday's game, looking for some energy after a slow start. Finch found it for a Wolves team that eventually turned a 13-point, first-half deficit into a four-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
On Sunday night, Hernangomez provided pulse – and defense -- that pushed the Wolves to an 86-75 lead with 9 ½ minutes left.
The Wolves played on until the end without star rookie Anthony Edwards, who left the game late in the third quarter but returned with seven minutes left after a hard collision with Blazers big man Enes Kanter left him walking carefully off the court clutching his size.
He already scored 21 of his points by then.
Hired to become the team's permanent head coaytch midway through the season, Finch was asked before Sunday's game if he scripts his rotations or decide more by feel within games. "It's a rough kind of guidepost to it," Finch said. "There's not a heavy script right now. A little bit more feel. There will be small tweaks."
He said he prefers to play Edwards to start the second quarter with the second unit.
"Gives us another attacker," Finch said. "But he got in foul trouble, so I tried to buy us some time early in that quarter before we went back to him (Saturday night)."
Sunday's game was the first of three pair of games in the next two weeks in which the Wolves will play the same team on consecutive nights. It's a scheduling quirk created by the pandemic-condensed schedule.
They will do so starting Thursday at Phoenix and later in the month at Houston. The Blazers will do that this week alone, playing New Orleans and Dallas both on consecutive nights at home.
On Saturday, the Wolves committed seven of their 18 turnovers in a first quarter alone that Finch called trying to "thread the needle" too often.
"It's turnovers, really, turnovers in the first five minutes of the game," Finch said before Sunday's game. "We're trying to get out and run, but we're not being very smart with our passing, our decision making."
He also attributed Saturday's early troubles on poor spacing when his team tried to get out and run.
"We can address that and I told our guys we want to push it, but let's not take any chance right away," Finch said.
Included in Saturday's turnovers was an underhanded pass that star center Karl Anthony-Towns had attempted before and that after the game Towns admitted he knows better than to throw.
When asked if his team needs to be more conservative, Finch said, "Not necessarily with getting it from A to B, but we don't have to thread the needle on these passes we're making in transition."
— Wolves guard Jarrett Culver remained out Sunday because of a big-toe strain. Also still out were Malik Beasley (league suspension), Jordan McLaughlin (health and safety protocols) and D'Angelo Russell (knee surgery).
