Timberwolves frustrate Mavericks all night as Luka Doncic, Jason Kidd ejected in loss

There was only one disappointing moment for Anthony Edwards in Monday's 116-106 Wolves victory over Dallas.

Edwards was one assist shy of his first career triple-double and he hit an open Naz Reid with just over a minute left at the top of the key. Reid put up the three, and at first it went down — then came back out.

The crowd groaned and Edwards hid his head in his hands momentarily in disbelief.

Shortly thereafter, Wolves coach Chris Finch called timeout and took Edwards out, and the crowd pleaded for Finch to put Edwards back in.

"We want Ant, we want Ant," was the refrain.

"I kind of like floated the ball at [Finch] a little bit, but he wasn't wrong," Edwards said. "He knew it was all love."

With the way Edwards has been playing, Finch would have been foolish to risk injury any longer. Edwards continued his torrid offensive barrage in Monday's win, the team's third consecutive, all of which have come without centers Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and various other injured supporting players. It also came with Dallas' Luka Doncic (19 points) not playing the fourth quarter after he and coach Jason Kidd got tossed in the third.

Edwards finished with 27 points and set a career high for the second consecutive night with 13 rebounds, which sat next to that menacing nine assists in the boxscore.

If there is one positive the Wolves can carry when Gobert comes back soon from a sprained ankle and Towns later from a right calf strain, it's that Edwards has seemed to unlock his potential not just as a scorer, but as a playmaker.

The key ingredient? A dose of fun, which Edwards said he has been having a lot of recently.

"I'm feeding off their energy," Edwards said of his teammates. "We young. We had no Rudy, no KAT, no Slo-Mo [Kyle Anderson] today. We were just all young out there playing with energy like the OKCs, Spurs. We were just playing young and fearless tonight."

His teammates have noticed it, too.

"I think that's the most happy I've seen him in a while," Reid said. "That's where it starts. When you're at your best, I feel like you bring that energy and that excitement. It just domino effect, and it trickles down to the next person and now everybody is excited for the next person. … With a person like him, it's real effective. You really feel that energy."

Reid certainly did as he had 27 points and 13 rebounds of his own. He came into the game in his words as "50-50" after injuring a muscle in his back and neck area. After treatment and rest, he was good enough to play and more than good enough to help the Wolves win.

"I take a lot of pride," Reid said. "I mean, shoot, the team, they tell me every day how big of a player I am to those big moments. I take a lot of pride in just coming to be ready for them."

As was the case in Friday's and Sunday's wins, the Wolves got contributions up and down the lineup, not the least of which came from forward Jaden McDaniels. McDaniels had 13 points and was the Wolves player who guarded Doncic (5-for-17) most.

After one possession in the third, McDaniels stifled Doncic, who ended up on the floor. Soon after, Doncic was getting ejected for arguing with officials. It gave McDaniels and his teammates a relative breather.

"Hey, he did me a favor," McDaniels said.

McDaniels was then asked if he took satisfaction in causing that by making life hard for Doncic.

"It's just really funny to me," McDaniels said. "I was probably laughing during the technical."

In the most unlikely of circumstances given all their injuries, the Wolves have found their moments of joy and laughter.