Anthony Edwards scores 44 points as Timberwolves take care of Rockets 113-104

After the game Saturday night, as the announced sellout crowd of 17,136 was either departing or cheering him on, Anthony Edwards dedicated his best game of the season to his girlfriend. It's her birthday in a couple of games, he said. She was going out of the country and wasn't going to be watching basketball for a while.

So: here you go:

Forty-four points, 17-for-29 shooting, eight three-pointers made, six rebounds, four assists, one big win. And then he blew his girlfriend a kiss.

Timberwolves 113, Houston 104.

On a night when the Wolves (24-24) spent most of the first 2½ quarters playing down to a Rockets team that had lost 12 straight and hadn't won since the day after Christmas, it was Edwards — with help from Nathan Knight — who dragged the Wolves out of their lethargy, provided Target Center with a huge jolt, essentially winning the game.

"I'm trying to give energy to my team," said Edwards, who set season highs in points, shots and shots made. His eight made three-pointers was the most by a Wolves player this year. "Because I saw the way it was going. We were down [12]. So I'm like, 'Man, I gotta give us some type of energy.' My shots happened to be falling tonight, so that's what did it."

Edwards made eight of 16 threes and had a number of dunks, including two on Houston center Alperen Sengun.

"We talked [Friday] about how important this game was for us," Wolves coach Chris Finch said. "How he needed to set the tone. He certainly did that. He was special today, both ends of the floor, really. Decisionmaking was sharp, he was shooting it, driving it, making all the right plays out there."

Playing against without Rudy Gobert, and with Naz Reid struggling at times, the Wolves found themselves down 12 when Eric Gordon hit a 28-foot three-pointer that put Houston up 68-56 with 8 minutes left in the third quarter.

From that point until the end of the game it was mainly Wolves.

But Knight deserves a co-star role in this comeback. Edwards scored seven points and Knight had five in a 15-2 run that put the Wolves up a point with 4:47 left in the third.

Up three entering the fourth quarter, the Wolves did just enough to finish it out, with Edwards (nine fourth-quarter points), D'Angelo Russell (eight) and Knight (seven) leading the way.

Russell finished with 23 points, Knight 19.

The Wolves won despite being crushed on the boards (56-30) and despite the Rockets getting 33 free-throw attempts.

Primarily because Edwards knew when it was time.

"We've lost this game many times this season," Finch said. "And it was all about approach and mind-set."

To Edwards, the next step is doing this most nights, not every so often.

"That's my goal is to do it every night," he said. "So I think I'm doing a pretty good job at doing it. And I'm trying to get better at setting a tone. Sometimes it's not scoring, it's defense. It's rebounding, pushing in transition, getting a foul early."

His teammates are noticing.

"The biggest thing is Ant realizing how impactful he can be for us," Knight said. "He's finally starting to realize that."

Said Russell, "When he's playing at that level offensively and defensively, we're a hard team to beat."