MINNEAPOLIS — Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs tested Target Center’s tradition of standing until Minnesota makes its first basket by holding the Timberwolves scoreless for nearly five minutes Sunday to start a game they’d still end up losing 104-103.
That’s because star guard Anthony Edwards spoiled Wembanyama’s first start since New Year’s Eve by hitting a floater with 16.8 seconds left to play as Minnesota rallied from a 19-point deficit. The Timberwolves didn’t seize their first lead until 2:19 remained, when Edwards connected on an 11-foot turnaround fadeaway.
“I didn’t really have it going tonight if I’m being honest,” Edwards said. “Like I told them, ‘I don’t care what happens in the first three quarters. Fourth quarter, three minutes, four minutes left, let me see it. Y’all can have 50 points. But in the fourth quarter, four minutes left, for the rest of the game, let me get it.'”
Edwards scored nine of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter on 4-of-5 shooting as Minnesota outscored San Antonio 33-18 in the final frame, putting 11 points on the board off seven Spurs turnovers.
The Timberwolves’ victory marked their fifth in a row against the Spurs, and the 19-point comeback registers as the team’s largest of the season.
“Just keep battling,” said Minnesota forward Julius Randle. “We missed a lot of shots. We know we didn’t play really well, particularly offensively. We had it going in spurts, but we missed a lot of shots. Just keep going, keep battling, keep fighting and see what happens.”
Wembanyama scored a game-high 29 points to go with seven rebounds and dominated inside from the onset, snatching away two lobs intended for Rudy Gobert as San Antonio sped to a 16-0 lead. Minnesota misfired on its first eight attempts with Wembanyama playing just 3:57 in his first stint, before checking out with 8:03 left in the first quarter.
Edwards would finally score the Timberwolves’ first basket with 7:22 left in the first quarter, thus allowing the stunned crowd of 18,978 to sit down.
“What makes them a tough matchup is they have a knack for turning it on when they get down a little bit or when it gets to crunch time,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “They’re a tough out and I thought they got the better of us obviously for sure in the fourth quarter.”
Minnesota didn’t score a basket with Wembanyama on the court in the first half until 10:38 remained until intermission, when Donte DiVincenzo drove in to hit a floater.
“It was our game for sure,” Wembanyama said. “I think sometimes we lost track of what we should have kept doing. We controlled the 3-point line in the first half. There were some stretches, not all the time, but there were some stretches where we just gave them too much freedom.”
The Timberwolves started off guarding Wembanyama with Gobert and eventually used Edwards to defend the Spurs’ big man along with Randle.
Most of the tactics proved ineffective early, but Minnesota limited Wembanyama to 13 points in the second half. With 7:24 left, officials whistled Gobert for a foul on a closeout while guarding Wembanyama, which was ruled a flagrant foul 1 after a review. Gobert was also assessed a technical foul on the play and Wembanyama connected on all four foul shots to give San Antonio a 91-81 lead.
Gobert’s flagrant foul was his fifth of the season, which means he’ll be forced to serve a one-game suspension.
“Rudy started on him and it kind of matched up,” said Timberwolves assistant coach Micah Nori, filling in for head coach Chris Finch, who was sidelined because of an illness. “You have to knock [Wembanyama] off the spot. Then, when he gets it, you have to crowd and take away his space. He still made shots. But Julius and everybody’s defensive effort, especially in the second half, just a phenomenal job by our guys to basically stick to it.”
Wembanyama scored a game-high 16 points in the first half on 5-of-10 shooting with six rebounds, while registering a plus-21 over 12 minutes. The 22-year old drilled his first basket on a 25-footer from the wing that gave San Antonio an 8-0 advantage and scored 11 of his first-half points in the opening quarter.
“We have to be able to finish games,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said. “We have to be able to put a team away. I think [Wembanyama] was great for us, getting to the free throw line, finding ways to be efficient. People are trying to be physical with him. He’s still being extremely effective. I think he’s officiated a little differently. They let people get away with a little more physical play with him. But that’s for him to navigate and figure out how to attack that.”
