SALT LAKE CITY — Karl-Anthony Towns saw open space and drove hard from the left corner past Jazz center Rudy Gobert.
Towns missed the shot and landed hard on his left wrist, the same wrist he fractured that kept him out of the final month of games last season. He promptly left for the locker room.
Towns calmed a lot of nerves when he came back to the scorer's table a few minutes later and checked back in with just under a minute remaining. But when he exited the Wolves were up eight with 5 minutes, 13 seconds to play. His teammates had to do their best to hold a lead in the meantime. They did enough.
The Wolves pulled off a 116-111 victory over Utah in a game they controlled most of the way.
With the Wolves ahead 113-111 with 4.7 seconds left, D'Angelo Russell went to the line for a pair of free throws with the approximately 1,500 fans in attendance at Vivint Arena doing all they could to distract him. Russell made the first, missed the second for a 114-111 lead.
Utah still had a chance, but in a moment that will make any coach swell with pride, the Wolves prevented Utah from inbounding the ball and got a five-second call. Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver switched on Donovan Mitchell, who had 21 points, forcing the turnover. Russell then iced the game at the line.
Russell helped the Wolves with 25 points while rookie Anthony Edwards, who stole the show in the first half, scored 18. Towns finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
After Towns exited momentarily, Russell hit a jumper to put the Wolves up 10, but Mitchell hit consecutive 3-pointers for the Jazz, who cut the lead to four, 107-103, with 2:27 to play. That was around the time Towns walked back from the locker room and headed to the scorer's table, but coach Ryan Saunders never called timeout to get him back in until there was a stoppage with just under a minute left. Russell hit a contested jumper and Naz Reid, who had his own injury scare in the first half, found a cutting Okogie for a layup. Then with 37.2 left, Malik Beasley hit a tough, contested runner to put the Wolves up 113-107. The Wolves had to hold a lead against a Western Conference contender in their building with a smattering of fans in attendance without their best player, and they did just that.
It was Edwards who helped ignite the Wolves in the first half.
On one sequence, Edwards had the ball near the top of the key and the only person standing between him and the basket was Gobert.
Gobert is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and perhaps the best rim protector in the league. Edwards, the 19-year-old-rookie, wasn't fazed. He dribbled left, spun on Gobert and put up a five-foot shot over the 7-foot-1 center and got a seemingly easy bucket.
He came in and made an immediate impact when he checked in and the score tied at 12. He hit a 3-pointer on his first shot of the game and got a pair of layups before putting the moves on Gobert to put the Wolves up 28-19. That set the tone for the Wolves.
The Wolves began cooking, specifically Russell, who scored 16 in the first half while Culver took over the game for a stretch in the second quarter. On three consecutive Wolves offensive possessions, Culver hit a pair of 3s and got an easy layup off a steal to put the Wolves up 62-51. Russell closed the half strong, draining a pair of 3s of his own to put the Wolves ahead 68-53 at the buzzer.
The Wolves got an initial scare late in the half when Reid fell hard on his left shoulder, but he was able to re-enter after the half. The Wolves led by as many as 17 in the third.
Gobert, who was in foul trouble, would re-enter late in the third and he and Mitchell got the Jazz going to end the quarter with a 10-2 run and Utah cut the Wolves' lead to eight entering the fourth.
The Jazz kept pressing in the fourth as Jordan Clarkson (23 points) caught momentary fire from outside with 3s on consecutive possessions, prompting Saunders to call a timeout with 8:57 left. The Wolves were able to steady themselves from there, even without Towns.
