Zion Williamson eruption too much for Timberwolves in thrilling game
It was a dog fight won by Zion Williamson against a Timberwolves team that gave the Pelicans everything they could handle in New Orleans Wednesday night. The game came down to the wire, with Anthony Edwards missing a baseline fadeaway as the horn sounded, giving the Pelicans a 119-118 win.
Williamson scored 33 of his season-high 43 points in the second half, including a furious stretch in the final three minutes of the game when on consecutive possessions hit knocked down a pair of free throws, buried a 3-pointer, made two athletic layups and then stole the ball and dunked to put the Pelicans up 118-116 with just under 40 seconds to go.
All-NBA @Zionwilliamson. Career-high 43 and the dub‼️‼️‼️‼️#DukeintheNBA pic.twitter.com/rUv7UKmfFG
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) December 29, 2022
On the next possession, Anthony Edwards exploded down the lane for a huge two-handed dunk with 29 seconds to go to the game.
Anthony Edwards driving dunk in crunch time holy shit pic.twitter.com/tqnvU4h2ou
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) December 29, 2022
The Pelicans missed a 3 the next trip down but an offensive board by Jaxon Hayes led to Williamson driving and getting fouled. He hit the first free throw and missed the second, with the Wolves grabbing the rebound and calling timeout with 3.5 seconds to go, ultimately leading to Edwards' fadeaway coming up short.
After getting benched late in Minnesota's disappointing loss in Miami on Monday, Rudy Gobert responded with 10 points, including multiple ferocious dunks, eight rebounds and four much-needed blocks.
Edwards and D'Angelo Russell led the Wolves with 27 points apiece, while Williamson erupted for 43 points and was an unstoppable force in the second half, when he bullied the Wolves for 33 of his points.
The game could've unraveled when Gobert picked up his third and fourth fouls within the first 80 seconds of the third quarter. But Minnesota held tough, going toe-to-toe with the Pelicans and held the lead from 58-54 when Gobert went out to 88-86 going to the fourth quarter.
And they held that lead despite Williamson exploding for 19 points in the third quarter.
Jaden McDaniels and Jaylen Nowell were excellent for Minnesota. Nowell had 14 points off the bench and McDaniels finished with 19 points and seven rebounds.
Minnesota has dropped four straight games and is now 16-19 overall.
Up next: Timberwolves at Bucks, Friday at 7 p.m. CT
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.