MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Timberwolves were missing five of their top seven players for most of their record-setting overtime rally to beat the Houston Rockets.
They chose focus over frustration.
With a game-closing 15-0 run, the Timberwolves came back from 13 points down for a 110-108 victory over the Rockets. No other NBA team has overcome an overtime deficit that big since the league began logging play-by-play details with the 1997-98 season.
“They fought through a ton of adversity. We should’ve won that game in regulation. We deserved to win that game. We were the better team all night, and we gave them a chance to steal it from us, but we stole it right back,” coach Chris Finch said.
After frittering away an 11-point lead with 3½ minutes left in regulation and fighting an imbalance in the foul calls all night, the Timberwolves found themselves trailing by 13 points with less than two minutes elapsed in the extra period Wednesday.
Superstar Anthony Edwards was sidelined for a fifth straight game with knee trouble. Key backup Ayo Dosunmu was out, too, with a sore calf. Jaden McDaniels, who had 25 points and valiant defense on Rockets star Kevin Durant, started hobbling down the stretch of the fourth quarter and had to be pulled. Rudy Gobert, who had a steely 14 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks, fouled out.
Then early in overtime, Naz Reid was ejected after voicing his displeasure with official Scott Foster for an offensive foul call. The fans at Target Center were steadily filing out.
But after Alperen Sengun’s dunk put the Rockets up 108-95, capping a stunning 26-2 run, the Timberwolves refused to punt on this pivotal game for Western Conference playoff positioning.
“You just got to take it a possession at a time. Biggest thing is be in the moment,” said Julius Randle, who shared the duty of defending Durant with Kyle Anderson after McDaniels departed.
Mike Conley, who got a rare start with Edwards and Dosunmu unavailable, swished a 3-pointer with 2:45 left. Anderson tipped in Randle’s missed layup, drew a foul on Sengun and converted a three-point play. Then the Timberwolves forced an eight-second violation by keeping the Rockets from advancing past half court.
Donte DiVincenzo cut in for a layup off a feed from Anderson to slice the deficit to five points. Randle grabbed Sengun’s miss at the rim before blowing by him for a layup on the other end to bring the Timberwolves within 108-105 with 1:34 left.
DiVincenzo tied the score with a 3-pointer. Sengun missed a jumper. Then Randle sank a pull-up shot with 8.8 seconds remaining for the lead.
“We’ve got real competitors in here, guys who want the challenge. It’s not the first time we’ve done something like that,” said Randle, who had 24 points, all after halftime. “When it gets tough, we come together as a group. It brings the best out of us.”
With the win, the Timberwolves (45-28) stayed a half-game behind Denver (46-28) for fourth place in the Western Conference. They moved 1½ games ahead of Houston (43-29) and, most importantly, evened the season series at one apiece. The Wolves face the Rockets on the road on April 10.
Despite taking 63 shots in the paint and only getting 10 free throws out of it, the Timberwolves found a way to pull out a victory. Even after Randle was called for a foul on Durant on his drive with 3.3 seconds left, sending him to the line with the Rockets 23 for 23 in the game at that point. He missed, then bricked the second one intentionally to try to keep possession.
“I’m so proud that we didn’t quit. We had a lot of opportunities to get very frustrated tonight,” Gobert said. “For the most part, we were able to overcome that. That’s the blueprint for us. We want to win a championship, so we know there’s going to be adversity. We know it’s going to come in a lot of ways.”
