Timberwolves pull off record comeback, beat Thunder 131-128 in OT after trailing by 25

OKLAHOMA CITY – As Anthony Edwards walked down the tunnel after the Timberwolves’ improbable 131-128 overtime victory over Oklahoma City, his booming voice filled the hallway.

“Superman with the block, with a bad calf,” Edwards said to some Wolves staffers. “... Go get the block with the bad calf, Ant. Haha!”

That block would be the one Edwards got on Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 13.2 seconds to play and the Wolves up one. The circumstances that led to that block, and his “bad calf,” were part of several twists Monday night that would make this one of the most historic regular-season comebacks in NBA history.

“We kept fighting. The team fights. It always has,” coach Chris Finch said. “We don’t always play the prettiest basketball, but it’s been fighting for a long, long time.”

According to OptaStats, no team had ever come back from 20 or more down in the fourth quarter on the road against a team with a winning percentage over .800 until the Wolves pulled off the feat Monday. The comeback tied a game against Charlotte in 1996 as the largest rally in Wolves franchise history — from down 25.

“This one didn’t feel like there was a chance in hell,” guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said.

But there was still that chance, even if the odds were so stacked against the Wolves.

“It kind of felt like Game 7 low key versus Denver when we came back,” said Jaden McDaniels, referencing last season’s second-round playoff win. “It’s not worth how much that game was, but it still gave us the feel even though we were down 15, 20, we could still come back in the game.”

They were down 16 with 3:41 left when Edwards exited the game because of his injury. The Wolves still won. How did they do it? A defensive shift in the fourth quarter, led by a plucky lineup of Naz Reid, McDaniels, Alexander-Walker and rookies Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr., who all played like they had nothing to lose. The Wolves were also 22-for-22 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and overtime. Given the Wolves played the Thunder late into the night Sunday in Minnesota and didn’t arrive at their hotel until after 3 a.m., the free throws might be the most impressive stat of their comeback.

As he smiled in an almost-empty Wolves locker room, Alexander-Walker, who had 21 points and hit a pair of free throws to put the Wolves up three with 6.6 seconds left in overtime, flashed back to something his player development coach James White said about shooting free throws in the Wolves’ practice facility.

“Randomly, he’s like, let’s go to this basket, this janky basket. I love our facility, but he’s like, if you can make it on this basket, you can make it on any one,” Alexander-Walker said. “And that’s my mentality every time I went to the line. I believed I was going to make them.”

That was infectious. McDaniels, who was brilliant all night in leading the Wolves with 27 points, was 9-for-9 from the line. He converted a key three-point play to tie the score with 11.2 seconds to play in regulation. Without McDaniels, the Wolves don’t win this game on a night when Edwards (17 points, 5-for-15) and Reid (22 points, 7-for-21) couldn’t find a rhythm scoring.

“I saw growth,” Reid said of his good friend McDaniels. “I was struggling, Ant was struggling. He was the only one getting to his spots, making shots and rebounding. I saw growth. We all see him every day. We all know he can play. There was something about today that was growth for me.”

With 3:41 left, Edwards exited the game with the injury after he said he got hurt in a play on the perimeter against Lu Dort. At the time, the Thunder were up 121-105, and after Edwards exited, Oklahoma City wouldn’t score again in regulation. Finch wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to wait to pull his other starters, but the Wolves kept getting stops and kept scoring.

“At one point, I debated pulling Jaden and Nickeil when it was at 19,” Finch said. “Then we pushed it to 17, and then I was like, OK, let me just see how this goes.”

Finch had adjusted his defensive game plan in one last-ditch effort — the Wolves double-teamed Gilgeous-Alexander (39 points) above the three-point line. Gilgeous-Alexander gave it up to his teammates, who clanked shot after shot.

This was the opposite of what had happened most of the last two nights, when the Thunder made the Wolves pay for those double teams. But if the Wolves were going down, they weren’t going to let Gilgeous-Alexander take them out.

“I’m on the bench just watching the game like: ‘Oh, we got another stop. Oh, we got another stop,’ ” Edwards said. “Shoutout to Finchy, man. He made a great adjustment as far as just going to blitz Shai. Because that’s what they did to me all night. So they got a taste of their own medicine, and they was making shots all night, and then somehow, in the fourth quarter, they just went cold.”

The Wovles scrambled as best they could behind the double teams, and they did a good job contesting most shots, but the Thunder still missed some open looks. That was the risk the Wolves took. The Wolves cleaned up the glass, and then in overtime, they forced three Thunder turnovers.

On offense, McDaniels provided the key spark all night. He got to his spots in the lane, and he forced contact getting to the rim and got to the line, where he was perfect.

“I was most happy watching Jaden because I know how much work he put in,” Edwards said. “... I know sometimes it might not go the way he wanted it to go, but like nights like tonight, it’s like, yeah, that’s why you work, Slim. You that good. So as long as he keep trusting his game within his own mind, block everybody else when he on the court and trust this game, he gonna be nice.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 131, Oklahoma City 128 (OT)

NBA standings

Reid overcame his own battles on the night. Finch said during one timeout, Reid was “down on himself” to the point that the rest of the team was trying to pick him up. He also overcame an injury scare when he grabbed at his ankle and was on the floor in pain at the end of the third quarter.

“I haven’t had moments like that in a while. But it’s part of the game,” Reid said of his shooting struggles. “Sometimes you gotta chalk it up and rely on the other guys on the floor. They put me in positions in the second half. … Those guys were helping me by putting me in those situations. I just kind of stuck with it from a mental standpoint.”

Reid was 3-for-3 from the field in the fourth quarter. That included a key step-back three to cut the lead to nine with 2:17 to play, a three that made the threat of a comeback real. He hit 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in overtime.

But the comeback also doesn’t happen without a pair of rookies who stepped up in a big way. Dillingham, whose play has been up and down of late, had a key layup with 1:17 to play as part of his 12 points. He also added five assists. Shannon played with force all night on both ends of the floor and finished with 17 points. He had 11 points and two blocks in the fourth. The Wolves won the game by getting to the hoop for easy baskets or free throws. They hit only one shot from more than a few feet after Reid’s three the rest of the night. Finch said it was about time the Wolves got a favorable whistle.

“It’s so frustrating to play this team because they foul a ton. … They foul all the time,” Finch said. “And then, you know, you can’t really touch Shai, and it’s a very frustrating thing, and it takes a lot of mental toughness to try to play through it. We just eventually were able to get downhill and force the issue ourselves and were rewarded for it.”

Meanwhile, Edwards was watching and got out the massage gun to get his calf as good as possible as the Wolves were coming back.

“I thought he was done,” guard Jaylen Clark said.

Alexander-Walker, meanwhile, had no idea Edwards was hurt.

“At that time, for me, that’s probably the most in the zone I’ve been in a long time,” he said. “I knew who was out there, but at the same time, I didn’t really know who was out there, just kind of paying attention to the flow of the game.”

Then Finch said he heard from the bench that Edwards was OK to check back in. Edwards said he made the call on whether he was healthy enough to check in again.

The Thunder initially took a three-point lead in overtime on a Gilgeous-Alexander three-point play, but the Wolves rallied again. Alexander-Walker sank a jumper and McDaniels hit a pair of free throws to put them up 125-124.

As Aaron Wiggins made free throws for the Thunder, Edwards checked back in with 1:48 to play. The Wolves were down 128-127 when Dort blocked a Reid layup attempt, but McDaniels poked the ball away from Dort and it went to Edwards, who missed a three. Reid never gave up on the play, got the rebound and drew a foul on the putback. His free throws put the Wolves up for good.

The next defensive stop was Edwards’ block. His teammates flashed back to another game-saving block he had against Indiana last season when he blocked the Pacers’ Aaron Nesmith as time ran out.

“That took everything out of me,” Edwards said. “What’s crazy is I don’t even think I jumped that high. That’s what was crazy. When I blocked it, I was definitely talking a lot of trash, for sure.”

Said McDaniels: “I told him the play before, let’s go use our athleticism. I didn’t even know he was hurt.”

Then with the Wolves up three and 6.6 seconds left, they opted not to foul the Thunder before Gilgeous-Alexander got off a three. He missed, and the celebration began. No matter how tired, sore or injured they were, they were going to savor this one before boarding a flight to Los Angeles.

“The Western Conference is so tight, and the last two games obviously we lost in clutch time. But we’re undermanned right now. We’re just trying to stay afloat,” Finch said. “Guys are scrapping, giving ourselves a chance every single night, and that’s what we want. It was a huge win for us.”

Monday’s game not only tied the mark for the Wolves’ biggest comeback in franchise history, but it was the fourth time in the past year they have come back from at least 20 points down to win.

March 12, 2024: Wolves 118, L.A. Clippers 100 (down 22 in second)

April 9, 2024: Wolves 130, Washington 121 (down 21 in first)

May 19, 2024: Wolves 98, Denver 90* (down 20 in third)

Feb. 24, 2025: Wolves 131, Oklahoma City 128, OT (down 25 in third)

*-playoff game