Coming into this weekend, it felt like the [Minnesota Timberwolves](http://canishoopus.com) were in a precarious spot. They had lost their previous three games, two of which in disastrous fashion, were sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference standings, and still hadn’t defeated a team with a winning record with two straight nights against winning teams on the schedule.
Their ineffectiveness late in close games was an issue in all three games during the losing streak, a problem that is especially notable given their struggles in that area a season ago. After starting the season 10-5, it was the Timberwolves’ first real hit of adversity.
Last night, the Wolves got their [first win of the season](/timberwolves-scores-results/62802/timberwolves-vs-celtics-nba-final-score-game-recap) against a winning team, both blowing and saving the game in the final minutes. While the 12-0 run by the Boston Celtics late in the game was less than ideal, the Wolves responded with a 6-0 run of their own, signaling they were learning from previous mistakes.
Tonight’s game against the San Antonio Spurs provided another test. Although the Spurs were without Victor Wembanyama, they have been playing great basketball of late, winning five of their last six games without their seven and a half foot tall Frenchman.
The game played out similarly to last night’s contest against Boston. The Wolves struggled to get stops through the first three quarters as De’Aaron Fox and the Spurs guards consistently got into the paint. As a team, San Antonio scored 52 points in the paint and 93 total through the first three quarters of the game.
All of that changed in the fourth quarter as the Wolves dominated the Spurs down the stretch of the game. Minnesota allowed just six fourth-quarter points in the paint while forcing San Antonio to miss 12 of their 18 shot attempts in the frame.
It wasn’t just the Wolves’ defense that turned the game around, as their offense came to life as well. The Timberwolves made 17 of their final 24 shots in the game, completely outclassing the San Antonio defense, which was missing their Defensive Player of the Year caliber center.
For the entire fourth quarter, the ball movement was perfection for the Wolves. They generated wide-open looks on almost every possession and took what was a close game early in the period to a 14-point lead with five minutes left on the back of a 17-4 run.
Anthony Edwards was sensational yet again, carrying the Wolves’ offense for the first three quarters of the game, but he only scored three fourth-quarter points. While that may sound like a negative, it was just the opposite as the Wolves superstar shared the ball exactly as the game dictated. The team was clearly rolling and was not about to get in the way of that.
Edwards finished the game with 32 points on incredibly efficient 13-18 shooting, including four 3-pointers, to go along with six assists. It was yet another outstanding scoring performance for Ant, who passed Karl-Anthony Towns for the most 30-point games in Timberwolves history.
The Timberwolves went on to win by a final score of 125-112. Along with Edwards, Julius Randle was the driving force for the Minnesota offense as he put up 22 points to go along with 12 assists and only one turnover while the team won the 36 minutes he was on the court by a team-high 30 points.
The Wolves now sit with a record of 12-8 with a favorable schedule ahead of them. Their next three games come against the bottom two teams in the Western Conference. It has been an up-and-down start to the season for the Wolves, but for at least one weekend, they put their previous poor play behind them to grab two much-needed wins on back-to-back nights.
The Timberwolves now take the show on the road for a pair of games against the New Orleans Pelicans, who currently sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. The first game on Tuesday begins at 7:00 PM CT. Fans can watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network.
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