Wolves dodge a disaster against Wizards with 41 points from Anthony Edwards

WASHINGTON – During the fourth quarter of the Timberwolves’ 120-106 victory over the Wizards on Monday night, Anthony Edwards came to a realization — the Wizards weren’t putting double teams on him as much as other teams have recently.

“In the first half, I didn’t read the game as much,” Edwards said. “I was already processing that they were doubling before the game even started, and they wasn’t in the first half.”

So instead of trying to make plays for his teammates, Edwards started looking to score, and score he did. Edwards put up 20 of his 41 points at Capital One Arena in the fourth quarter, and his scoring burst helped the Wolves stave off the embarrassment of losing to the league-worst Wizards, who had grabbed the lead at various points of the third quarter.

Edwards’ fourth quarter featured plenty of “wow” moments, such as an impressive stepback three-pointer he made from the left wing over Bilal Coulibaly and then an improbable three-point play on which he threw the ball up and it went in. He was high-fiving fans courtside and flexing for a crowd that featured plenty of Wolves fans.

“I felt like I was in Minnesota, it was crazy,” Edwards said. “My first two points was a dunk, and I felt like I was at the crib, so that made the game a lot easier.”

Edwards’ and the Wolves’ night overall was a microcosm for where the team is right now against its No. 1 nemesis — turnovers. The Wolves had 13 turnovers in the first half, and that let the Wizards hang around. They had just six in the second half, and they were able to win comfortably. Edwards had six turnovers through three quarters but committed only one in the fourth.

“We talked about it this morning, we walked about it before the game and then talked about it halftime, and finally we did a good job of taking care of it,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “When we do, we can be pretty potent. Right now, just a lot of self-inflicted ones, silly ones. Got to get those out first and foremost.”

Finch has said he can live with the Wolves committing around 12 turnovers per game, and that was their second-half pace.

For his part, Edwards said he should have shot instead of looking to make an additional drive or play on a number of his miscues Monday.

“I said it today when we circled up after the game, ‘Fellas, my fault,’ " Edwards said. “I had [seven] turnovers, and five of them I could have pulled up. You’d rather a shot attempt than a turnover. I know I’mma change that.”

He did in the fourth quarter, and it led to a 38-27 fourth quarter for the Wolves and a fun 12 minutes for all involved after a stressful first 36. Kyle Kuzma had 22 points and Jordan Poole had 20 for Washington, which fell to 6-32 with its seventh consecutive loss.

Julius Randle added 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolves, while Rudy Gobert had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

“It’s great to watch him have fun,” Gobert said of Edwards. “I’m already kind of the annoying guy that tells him to stay locked in, and he might feel like I’m trying to cut off his fun, but I know him so well, I know that he has to find that balance between having fun and staying disciplined in the game, staying focused, so he can have that consistency.”

Edwards found the right balance in time Monday.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 120, Washington 106

The league fined Edwards another $50,000 on Monday after he directed an obscene gesture toward an official in the Wolves’ loss Saturday to Memphis. It was the latest in a series of fines the league has handed out to him this season, multiple times for cursing in postgame interviews.

“I made a careless young, dumb mistake shooting birds,” Edwards said. “I got fans that’s little kids, and I got parents that’s looking at me, knowing their kid is a fan of me, looking at me like what type of, how can I say, role model is he shooting birds in the middle of a basketball game? That has nothing to do with the refs at all. That’s all me mentally making a young, dumb mistake. I won’t make it again.”

Rookie Terrence Shannon Jr. will be out two to four weeks because of a right midfoot sprain, the Wolves announced. Shannon suffered the injury while playing for G-League Iowa on Saturday, and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. The team recently sent rookie Rob Dillingham to Iowa for a rehab assignment from a sprained ankle.