Minnesota Timberwolves foil Los Angeles Lakers’ last-minute comeback bid
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The Lakers' Anthony Davis (left) and LeBron James reacting after James' game-tying three-pointer attempt was ruled as a two-point basket.
PHOTO: AFP
MINNEAPOLIS – Anthony Edwards scored 31 points in 38 minutes as the Minnesota Timberwolves held on for a contentious 108-106 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec 30 in Minneapolis.
Naz Reid contributed 21 points off the bench for Minnesota, who improved their National Basketball Association Western Conference-leading record to 24-7.
Mike Conley added 15 points and seven assists, and Rudy Gobert registered 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 33 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists. Davis also had four steals and a pair of blocked shots for the Lakers, who fell to 0-2 against Minnesota this season.
LeBron James finished with 26 points on 10-for-21 shooting on his 39th birthday. No other Lakers player scored in double digits.
A technical on Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels gave the Lakers an opportunity to rally from a seven-point deficit in the final 31 seconds.
Austin Reaves made the technical free throw, and James made a free throw to complete a three-point play on McDaniels’ initial foul. That brought Los Angeles within 107-104.
With 3.1 seconds left, James tried to make a game-tying three-pointer, but his foot was ruled to be on the line by a razor-thin margin and the basket counted for two points instead. That kept Minnesota ahead by a point.
Said James: “It’s obviously a three. My foot is behind the line. I mean, you can see the space between the front of my foot and the three-point line.
“You can clearly see a white, the wood on the floor. There’s a space in between the front of my foot and the three-point line. So, you know, Stevie Wonder can see that, champ.”
He later added: “It’s super frustrating in the sense of, what the hell have we got a replay for? What do we have a replay for, if even the replay gets it wrong?”
Edwards drew a foul with 1.1sec remaining and made one of two free throws to give the Timberwolves a two-point lead.
The Lakers’ final play fizzled out as the buzzer sounded to end the game.
Over in San Francisco, Luka Doncic won a scoring duel over Stephen Curry as the Dallas Mavericks held off the Golden State Warriors 132-122.
Doncic went for a game-high 39 points, 14 more than Curry in their first head-to-head match-up of the season, helping the Mavericks end a two-game losing streak while extending the Golden State’s skid to three.
Said Warriors coach Steve Kerr: “We haven’t found that grit that every good team need, where you pull together and you just play for the group. We’re not there yet. And that’s a problem.
“We’ve got great guys. I love every one of them. But until this team really connect in a way that is solely dedicated to winning each and every game, then we’re going to be stuck in this place.” REUTERS
