Anthony Edwards scored 21 points before leaving in the second half because of a hip injury, and the host Minnesota Timberwolves held on for a 106-103 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in an NBA in-season tournament matchup Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
Rudy Gobert finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds for Minnesota, which won for the 13th time in 17 games to start the season. The Timberwolves improved to 3-1 in Group C of the in-season tournament but failed to advance.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points to lead Oklahoma City, which fell to 1-3 in the tourney after already having been eliminated from advancing. Chet Holmgren, who starred in high school in Minnesota, finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.
Edwards left the game in the third quarter after landing hard on his right hip. He attempted a dunk, made contact in the paint with Thunder forward Jaylin Williams and toppled to the ground, with his hip absorbing most of the impact.
After a timeout, Edwards returned to the game and made his free throws. He tried to stay on the court but left about a minute later while grabbing his hip and side.
The score was tied at 90 with 5:30 remaining.
Naz Reid made a 3-pointer on the Timberwolves’ next possession to break the stalemate. Gobert followed with a pair of free throws to make it 95-90 in favor of Minnesota with 4:34 to go.
Oklahoma City clawed back within 103-101 with 27.1 seconds remaining as Holmgren made a 3-pointer off a feed from Gilgeous-Alexander.
Karl-Anthony Towns answered with a pair of free throws to push the Timberwolves’ lead to 105-101.
Gilgeous-Alexander answered with a driving dunk to cut the deficit to 105-103 with 5.1 seconds left.
One second ticked off the clock before Troy Brown Jr. made one of two free-throw attempts to make it 106-103 for Minnesota.
The Thunder called a full timeout with four seconds left to organize a potential game-tying play. But Gilgeous-Alexander missed on a final 3-point attempt, Kyle Anderson grabbed a defensive rebound and the buzzer sounded.
Oklahoma City built a 61-53 lead at halftime. Gilgeous-Alexander had 20 points.
–Field Level Media