Some of the excitement around Wednesday night's matchup between the Timberwolves and 76ers disappeared during the afternoon, when Philadelphia declared reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid out because of hip soreness.
That led to a relatively easy and undramatic 112-99 Wolves victory. But for the Western Conference-leading Wolves, a boring, "professional" kind of victory, as coach Chris Finch called it, is one of the best things they can accomplish, especially when these nights became losses too often last season.
"We ain't coming out here to play around," guard Anthony Edwards said.
So a night like Wednesday, when the Embiid-less 76ers never made a serious push after the second quarter, should become the norm for a team that has deep playoff aspirations.
"We lost a lot of games that we were supposed to win last year, and it hurt us at the end of the season," Edwards said. "So, Finchy put emphasis on that from training camp, like, we're not messing around with teams we're supposed to beat."
Edwards was a big reason for that, as his scoring — he finished with 31 points on the night — rescued the Wolves from occasional offensive doldrums in a second quarter the Wolves lost 29-20. His 13 third-quarter points helped the Wolves turn an eight-point halftime lead into a 21-point fourth-quarter lead, with the 76ers only cutting into the margin during end-of-bench garbage time. Karl-Anthony Towns pitched in 23 points, while Shake Milton had a season-high 12 points against his former team.
"Everybody's here to win," said forward Naz Reid, who had 13 points. "Everybody has one goal. Everybody's got their money situation out of the way. Now we're here to play basketball and win the game. We're not really too much worried about anything other than that."
With the victory, the Wolves made some history. Their 11-3 start is the best through 14 games in franchise history. They also remained perfect (7-0) at home while staying atop the Western Conference standings.
