The Los Angeles Clippers walked into Minnesota already dealing with a short-handed opponent, and still ended up on the wrong side of a blowout.
The Timberwolves pulled away late and beat the Clippers 127-101 on Friday at Target Center to open Emirates NBA Cup West Group B play. It was a familiar kind of unraveling for Los Angeles, which had been able to hang around in stretches but never found a way to stop Minnesota’s closing burst.
The game turned hard in the fourth quarter. After the Clippers trimmed the margin to eight points for the second time, following an 11-0 run early in the period, Minnesota answered with a crushing 23-2 surge over the next nearly six minutes and slammed the door.
That finish was especially notable because it came without Anthony Edwards. Minnesota’s two-guard missed his second straight game after undergoing a debridement procedure on his right knee on Thursday, a procedure expected to keep him out for at least two months. The Timberwolves didn’t need him to finish the job.
Instead, they got a big night from Jayden McDaniels, who scored 23 points on 11-for-15 shooting, added six rebounds and seven assists, and picked up his first steal of the season. Bones Hyland also came off the bench and delivered 19 points with eight assists.
Minnesota’s shot-making from deep kept the pressure on all night. The Timberwolves went 18-for-43 from three and have now hit at least 15 triples in four of their five games this season. They lead the league with 16.0 made three-pointers per game.
LaMelo Ball was the Timberwolves’ other major scoring punch in the decisive stretch, finishing with 24 points on 9-for-20 shooting and going 6-for-15 from beyond the arc. Three of those threes came in less than two minutes during the fourth-quarter run that buried the Clippers.
Los Angeles had its own top scorer in Darius Garland, who matched Ball with 24 points while shooting 10-for-22 overall and 4-for-8 from three. He hit a pair of threes early in the third quarter, but Minnesota’s defense kept coming at him, and Jaylen Clark forced five turnovers from Garland as the Clippers guard continued to pile up giveaways.
Rui Hachimura was the only other Clippers starter to reach double figures with 12 points after missing Wednesday’s game against the Lakers because of left quad soreness. Brook Lopez added 13 points and six rebounds off the bench, while rookie guard Keaton Wagler kept his double-digit scoring streak alive with 12 points. Wagler shot just 2-for-11 from the floor but went 7-for-8 at the line and has now reached at least three free-throw attempts in each of his last four games.
The loss was Los Angeles’ second-largest margin of defeat ever at Target Center, and it dropped the Clippers to a four-game losing streak after their opening-night win over Sacramento.
They’ll try to stop the slide on Sunday at Golden State.
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