Down 3 starters, Timberwolves leave OKC with a victory
Anthony Edwards was three assists shy of a triple-double and Naz Reid scored 28 points as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Oklahoma City Thunder despite Rudy Robert, D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns all missing the game with injuries.
Taurean Prince and Jordan McLaughlin were also out with injuries, so the likes of Nathan Knight and Austin Rivers had to step up – and they didn't miss their chance.
Rivers buried a 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds left to give Minnesota a 111-07 lead and Minnesota held on for a 112-110 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak to end their five-game road trip.
Rivers finished with 20 points and hit 4-of-5 3s. He started alongside Edwards, Kyle Anderson, Jaden McDaniels and Reid.
Edwards had 21 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. He had 9 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in the first half, acting as a distributor without a true point guard available due to injuries to Russell and McLaughlin.
But it was the guys who are typically backups who shined brightest.
Reid scored 28 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Rivers had 5 steals to go with his 20 points, and Knight, who had 13 points all season, scored all 10 of his points in the first half. Jaylen Nowell had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists off the bench.
The victory gets the Wolves to 14-15 on the season.
Gobert (ankle) and Russell (knee) were questionable for the game so it's unlikely that this miss much more time, if any. Minnesota is back in action Sunday against the Chicago Bulls.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.