MINNESOTA: Karl-Anthony Towns scored 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Andrew Wiggins added 29 points to lift the Minnesota Timberwolves to a win over the red-hot Portland Trail Blazers.
Portland’s Damian Lillard had a good look at a potential game-winning shot, but his jumper rimmed out at the buzzer, ending the Blazers’ six-game winning streak.
Portland (38-39) is in eighth place in the Western Conference, 1½ games ahead of the Denver Nuggets.
Towns hit a big one-handed shot with 57.3 seconds to play to give Minnesota a five-point lead. The basket came after Portland’s CJ McCollum missed a wide-open three-pointer at the other end that would have tied the game. Towns capped his performance with a two-handed slam over Al Farouq Aminu to give Minnesota a 110-106 lead with 35 seconds remaining.
Portland brought it back to one point before Wiggins’ shot with 4.9 seconds to play went out of bounds giving the Trail Blazers one last chance but Lillard, who finished with 25 points, could not get it to fall.
Aminu added 20 points off the bench, while McCollum and Maurice Harkless each scored 17.
Portland led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter before Minnesota stormed back to take a three-point lead after three quarters. The Trail Blazers used a 7-0 run to regain the lead, capped by a three-pointer by Allen Crabbe.
Monday’s game was a makeup of a game that was postponed on March 6. That game had to be rescheduled after condensation on the court was deemed unsafe. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
