Timberwolves claw back against Clippers, end losing streak at four games

Two nights after Anthony Edwards talked straight to them and himself, the Timberwolves responded with a hectic, 93-92 victory Friday over the Los Angeles Clippers that ended their losing streak at four games.

After Wednesday’s home loss to the Kings, Edwards asked reporters, “What do you wanna know, why we’re trash?”

On Friday, they used hustle, defense and enough grit to win an NBA Cup tournament game.

They did so by withstanding a wild and wacky final minute in which the Wolves had the ball and led by that one point and the Clippers chose not to foul with a two-second differential between the shot and game clocks.

The Wolves missed two shots in the final five seconds but rebounded both. Big man Rudy Gobert grabbed the second one and threw it crosscourt and out of danger to Mike Conley as the buzzer sounded.

Edwards’ teammates responded with a victory after he spoke his mind in a postgame locker room interview on Wednesday.

“Hell yeah, that’s what I like,” Edwards said. “They ain’t saying to me, but they showed it. That’s what I liked.”

Edwards scored six of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. Included was a go-ahead three-pointer that gave his team a 92-90 lead with 2 minutes, 25 seconds left, and he made the eventual winning point by going 1-for-2 at the free-throw line with 1:45 left for a 93-90 lead the Wolves never surrendered.

They turned the ball over 21 times and allowed 23 points off those turnovers but persevered.

Gobert played nearly 44 minutes and anchored a defense that limited Clippers star James Harden to 20 points on 20 shots from the field. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, coming on to substitute for point guard Mike Conley, provided a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double. Naz Reid had two blocked shots, a steal and six rebounds in an important supporting role.

“Those are winning plays,” Edwards said. “We talked as a team how we want to win and change it around and get back to who we are defensively. Those are things we gotta do over and over and over again, no matter how tiring it is, how exhausting it is. As a group, after the game, I asked them: How bad do we want to win? If we want to win, we’re going to do that stuff every game. We’re not going to do it one game and not do it the next game.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 93, L.A. Clippers 92

“Even myself, man, I was on Harden, just on him, pressuring the ball. Didn’t get tired. Didn’t take plays off on defense. That’s going to help us win as a team. That’s who we are. We’re a defensive team.”

When asked how deep he and his team had to dig, Edwards said, “As far as we could. It was a tough game.”

Then he was asked if Friday’s was a game of desperation.

“Hell, yeah,” Edwards said. “I hope it is for everybody. It definitely is for me.”

Gobert put in a full night’s work himself, going for nearly 44 minutes, including all 12 in the fourth quarter.

“I’m going to get some good sleep tonight,” Gobert said. “I’ll sleep a little more peacefully knowing that I tried to give my best every minute I’m out there. Some nights I’m going to play more than others. It didn’t feel like 44 minutes. I was so locked in and trying to get this win that I didn’t feel it.”

Gobert was the one who grabbed the ball with some finality at game’s end, after Clippers guard Kris Dunn stumbled and lost it with 26 seconds left. Conley and Alexander-Walker, who had missed a three-pointer with 31 seconds left, passed it back and forth to each other. The ball went to Edwards, then to Conley. He shot from the right wing but missed. Edwards tried to tap the offensive rebound back into the net, but he missed, too.

Finally, Gobert grabbed it and threw it over everybody to Conley as the clock ran out.

“Truthfully, I was so mad I missed that shot,” Alexander-Walker said. “So when I got it back, it took everything in me not to reload and let it fly. Those two offensive rebounds saved us.”