Timberwolves spoil Julius Randle's 57-point game at Madison Square Garden
In the latest, most important game of the year – and playing without Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns – the Minnesota Timberwolves survived a 57-point effort from Julius Randle and left Madison Square Garden with a 140-134 win over the New York Knicks on Monday night.
Taurean Prince scored 35 points and hit all eight of hits 3-point attempts for a heroic effort in a spot start in a game the Timberwolves needed to win. Had Minnesota lost, they would've dropped out of the top 10 in the Western Conference playoff race. Instead, they won and moved another day closer to the returns of Edwards and Towns.
Edwards missed his second game in a row with a sprained right ankle and Towns was out for a 52nd consecutive game due to a right calf strain. Their respective returns appear imminent, with Edwards out of a walking boot and head coach Chris Finch saying Towns is "really, really close."
Randle scored 57 points. He had 52 after three quarters, fueled by a 26-point third quarter that set a Knicks franchise record for points in a quarter by a player. It's the third-most points in a single game in Knicks history, trailing Carmelo Anthony (62 points in 2014) and Bernard King (60 points in 1984).
Minnesota hit 10 straight shots to start the game, had 79 points at the half and still found a way to blow a 17-point lead. They were trailing 129-124 with under 4 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game and they wound up closing with an 11-5 run.
Mike Conley had 24 points and 11 assists while Jaden McDaniels (18), Rudy Gobert (16), Jaylen Nowell (14), Naz Reid (12) and Kyle Anderson (10) all scored in double figures.
Up next: Timberwolves vs. Hawks, Wednesday at 7 p.m
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.