Anthony Edwards' season-high 44 points lead Timberwolves over Mavericks 118-110

The disappointment and bewilderment in Chris Finch's voice Thursday night made it seem as if his team had not just walked off the Target Center floor with a 118-110 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

In listening to Finch go through the current issues with his team's offense, anybody might have walked away thinking the Wolves suffered one of their toughest losses of the season instead of following up another loss with a victory, something they have done after every defeat in going 23-7 so far.

"I thought at the end of the second quarter, in particular, we all were having a pity party for ourselves offensively," Finch said of the lack of ball movement and smart offense when the Wolves lost most of an early 18-point lead. "There's a lot of ways to be immature. Generally, this team has been very mature. But we gotta grow up offensively. It's time."

Again, this came after a victory, one in which Anthony Edwards led the team with 44 points and the Wolves did what they needed to do against a Dallas team that was without Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

But it was also a night the Wolves committed 22 turnovers, including 10 during the "pity party" of that maligned second quarter when Finch said the Wolves were forcing shots following Edwards' hot start to the night

"If they haven't touched the ball for a little while, they can't just decide that they're gonna put their head down and go to the hoop or that they're gonna jack it because they haven't shot it for a little while," Finch said. "And that's everybody that's done that at one point in time."

While Finch didn't single out any player specifically, it was hard not to imagine he had a few moments in his head when Karl-Anthony Towns did that Thursday.

Towns, who is playing through left knee soreness, finished with just 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting to go with five turnovers. Edwards had six turnovers, but he offset that by going 12-for-23 from the field and 14-for-18 from the free-throw line. Edwards felt as if he left some offense on the floor in Oklahoma City in Tuesday's loss, and he wasn't going to let that happen Thursday.

"Just shoot it," Edwards said. "I put it in my mind before the game, like, I'm probably going to shoot it every time I touch it. So, I came in with the mindset that whatever I was going to do, I was going to do."

Edwards was hot, especially in the first quarter when he scored 14, and third, when he had 16. In that third quarter, Dallas took a 72-71 lead — its first since 3-0 to begin the game — before the Wolves responded later in the quarter with a 15-3 run to regain control. Their defense allowed Tim Hardaway Jr. to score 32 points, and Dallas shot 42% from three-point range without its two top scoring threats.

The Wolves again benefited from a team sitting out a star player against them on their home floor. Doncic (officially out because of left quad soreness) joined a growing list of players that includes LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid, Zion Williamson and Tyrese Haliburton who didn't play at Target Center for largely rest and rejuvenation purposes. Most of those came on the second night of a back to back, as Dallas was Thursday.

Irving also wasn't in uniform for Dallas, but Irving hasn't played since Dec. 8 as he recovers from a heel injury.

Had either been available, perhaps Thursday turns out differently. But in this season, with hopes of getting the top seed in the Western Conference, the Wolves will keep taking the wins no matter how they come.

They kept Dallas at an arm's length throughout the fourth, thanks in part to Rudy Gobert, who finished with 20 points on 7-for-7 shooting to go with 11 rebounds.

"We've got so many weapons, so many guys that draw a lot of attention," Gobert said. "If we just execute and make the game easy, we're hard to guard. When the ball gets a little stagnant, we make it harder on ourselves. Tonight, we saw both faces."

There was mostly a pained expression on Finch's face as he lamented the Wolves only dishing out 22 assists in a game they scored 118 points. He also wondered aloud whether he sometimes gives too much freedom to Edwards and Towns at times on offense.

"We're on them a lot," Finch said. "They have great freedom. Maybe too much, and that's on me. They have great freedom, but they have the responsibility to make the game easy for everyone. They'll do it. … When you have guys that are natural-born scorers, sometimes if they're not scoring, they don't feel like they're impacting the game."

Edwards was able to do that with his scoring on a night Towns was off. It might not have been ideal, but the Wolves still won.

"I think that's a good sign, honestly. Because even with not playing as well as we should or not playing our best, we're still able to find a way to win," forward Kyle Anderson said. "... It could get scary once we finally figure it out."