Wolves 130, Kings, 126: Super F’ing Important Victory

Anthony Edwards shared his sentiments after helping Minnesota survive a blown 16-point fourth quarter lead and a record-setting 60-point effort by De’Aaron Fox.

How are Minnesota Timberwolves fans supposed to survive a season like this?

The Sacramento Kings hosted the Wolves for their first NBA Cup game, but were without the services of DeMar DeRozan (back) and Malik Monk (ankle). Minnesota were at the end of a three-game road trip which included a cookbook on three deflating ways to lose a basketball game.

Let’s skip the rest of the pleasantries and just get right to it.

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

The Start — Regressing to the Mean

Remember when the Wolves shot a combined 33 for 119 (27.7%) from distance in their last three games? It was easy to forget that after Minnesota’s first quarter performance, as they canned 5 of 11 shots from perimeter. After Fox scored the Kings first five points of the game (More from him later), Edwards immediately answered with five points of his own including his first three pointer that surely gave Wolves fans a huge sigh of relief (Also more from him later). Things started looking up for Minnesota as Conley drilled his first two attempts as well, including a four-point play where Gobert was shoved into him.

The short-handed Kings were clearly missing the presence of DeRozan. Outside of Fox’s heroics and Sabonis having his way with Gobert, as he often does, points were hard to find. Minnesota rattled off a 7-0 run to get some separation late in the quarter thanks to Gobert playing well in the roll and making good decisions. That said, Sacramento was still able to hang around thanks to the Minnesota’s continued defensive miscues. A Julius Randle buzzer-beating triple capped off an entertaining start.

The Middle — All-Star Duel

The three-point attack rolled into the second quarter, as Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Naz Reid all got in the scoring column from deep. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year, who unfortunately didn’t get the opportunity to face-off against his runner-up, put on a hook shot clinic to help the Wolves build their lead.

Unfortunately, Edwards took a scary fall onto the knee of Julius Randle and remained on the ground for a bit before gingerly limping to his feet. Keep in mind, this is the same Randle that trucked Jamal Murray into concussion protocol just weeks ago. The temporary injury, in addition to some early foul trouble, took Minnesota’s star out of the game as Sacramento’s continued to shine. Edwards was not pleased with the fans in attendance jeering at him.

That’ll be a fine. We’ll start the GoFundMe.

Fox notched his point total up to 21 in the first half, single-handedly keeping his team in the fight. A 62-53 halftime lead for the Wolves seemed less than ideal considering how well they were moving the ball and hitting from beyond the arc. Things looked like they were going to go sideways for Sacramento early in the third quarter though. Minnesota’s lead quickly ballooned up to 20 as Conley was in the zone, canning another pair of triples. Kings fans booed their own team during a timeout just three and a half minutes into the second half.

Just like the previous quarter, Fox took the challenge head on, pouring in another 13 points in the third period. He took advantage of the Wolves lackadaisical defense by strolling into the paint at will and living at the free throw line. Meanwhile, Edwards had put up his own double-digit scoring quarter as well, enabling the poor defensive effort by hitting some tough shots. It still resulted in a 16-point lead as both teams headed towards the final quarter.

The Finish — Initiating Madness

Was a 16-point lead enough for a struggling Wolves team to break their three game skid?

It took the Kings just under three minutes to nearly erase the whole thing.

An epic 14-0 run to start the quarter was hilariously awful for Minnesota. Head Coach Chris Finch and his staff could not get his team to slow down Fox at all. The 26-year-old scored 9 points in the first quarter, 12 points in the second quarter, 13 points in the third quarter, and 20 points in the fourth quarter.

20.

The Wolves offense was almost as laughable as their defense, committing three early turnovers while missing 11 of their first 12 field goal attempts. With over seven minutes left in the game, the Kings took a 101-100 lead as Golden 1 Center had exploded in excitement. The Wolves looked absolutely shook on the court while their fan base was losing their collective minds as the Sacramento grew their lead to 113-109, with just over two minutes left to play. This was the same Timberwolves who blew a eight-point fourth quarter lead to the Miami HEAT just five days ago. The same Wolves who got embarrassed by the tanking Portland Trail Blazers twice just earlier this week.

But this is also the same Minnesota Timberwolves that blew a 12-point fourth quarter lead to the Denver Nuggets, yet battled back from down 10 with 3:36 left on the clock.

Edwards had enough of all the jump shooting. After missing all five of his field goal attempts, all of the jump shot variety, he put his head down, drove hard and in control to score two straight and-ones to miraculously take a two-point lead with 50.1 ticks left.

Fox would instantly respond on the next Sacramento possession to easily score points 52 and 53 on a floater, but a Kings blunder allowed Minnesota the final look in regulation. Edwards drove to draw two defenders once again before spraying the ball to a wide open Jaden McDaniels in the right corner.

Miss.

Both teams looked absolutely gassed from an emotional back-and-forth game. Was this the NBA Cup magic? Or was this just two young superstars nailing each other with haymakers? Probably both. Overtime looked much like the end of the fourth quarter. McDaniels redeemed himself with a big triple to answer a Fox trey. Randle scored five important points, including a wild 22-second span of live game action where he was trying to put on a shoe, to bounce back from a disastrous fourth quarter performance.

But at the end of the day, it was always going to be Anthony Edwards.

Big step-back triple. Cash. Impressive reverse layup through traffic. Money. Crucial stop on Fox in isolation. Clamps. And then, the final dagger.

Helluva way for Chris Finch to end his 300th game as the head coach of the Timberwolves, becoming just the second person to ever last this long on the Wolves sidelines (RIP Flip). Finch was extremely complimentary of Edwards late game decision-making in the post game press conference, praising his ability to make the right reads and passes.

How important was this not just for the team, but to instill belief in the fan base?

Oh, and the Wolves earn their first win of the Emirates NBA Cup tournament. In case you’re into that stuff.

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Game Highlights

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Box Score

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Lead Tracker

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Comment of the Night

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Up Next

The Wolves fly back home to Minnesota to finish off their brutal seven games in 11 nights stretch by welcoming in their 2024 first round sweepee. In town for a matinee tip are the Phoenix Suns (9-3) on Sunday, 11/17 at 2:30 PM CT, who will be without the services of Kevin Durant (calf strain), and potentially Bradley Beal (calf contusion; day-to-day).