2 weeks Ago By Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press
Toronto continues to be a house of horrors for the Timberwolves, even when it has no business being one. ADVERTISEMENT Minnesota lost its 20th consecutive game in the city on Thursday, falling 110-105 to the cellar-dwelling Raptors. In a back-and-forth affair, the Wolves were simply outplayed down the stretch.
Toronto (4-12) entered the evening with three wins. Minnesota was fresh off a three-day break. Thursday looked ripe for a get-right game for Minnesota, who had won consecutive games ahead of the tilt, but neither came in convincing fashion.
After needing a buzzer beater to defeat a Phoenix team that’s getting throttled by everyone at the moment and losing twice to Portland last week, there are no sure wins for the Wolves at the moment. ADVERTISEMENT Anthony Edwards was quiet in the first half, scoring just five points over the first 12 minutes. But he caught fire after the break, scoring 11 points in the first four minutes of the third quarter in a stretch that put the Wolves up five.
But every time it looked as though the Wolves would pull away, they would have a defensive breakdown that would, inevitably, lead to an easy Raptors’ bucket to get Toronto back into the game. Edwards finished with 26 points, while Julius Randle scored 23 and Jaden McDaniels had 22 on a night where the Wolves were without Mike Conley, who missed the game with a sprained toe. But Minnesota (8-7) allowed Toronto to shoot 51% from the field, as the Wolves continue to get crushed by opposing scoring wings.
After Shaedon Sharpe, De’Aaron Fox and Devin Booker cooked the Minnesota defense in three consecutive games, it was R.J. Barrett’s turn on Thursday.
He scored 31 points on 10-for-14 shooting. The Wolves will now have another two days off before playing the Celtics on Sunday in Boston, a city in which they haven’t won since 2005, a streak of 17 consecutive losses. It remains to be seen if they’ll have Naz Reid in that tilt.
He walked off the floor gingerly in the final minute on Thursday after he was rolled into by Raptors wing Scottie Barnes in a loose-ball situation. ADVERTISEMENT Rob Dillingham played 10 minutes before he was ruled out after suffering an ankle injury in the second half. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies.
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