The Timberwolves were in the midst of a collapse and heading toward a bad loss Friday at Target Center.

An 11-point lead over Dallas to open the final frame was slowly melting away when veteran guard Mike Conley leaned over to Anthony Edwards on the bench and suggested the 24-year-old superstar check himself back into the contest.

“I was like, ‘Nah, he’s going to put me in,’” Edwards said of Wolves coach Chris Finch.

The call to action came with seven minutes remaining after a Tyus Jones’ bucket tied the game at 103-103.

Edwards knew what he had to do. He had to be aggressive.

On his first possession back on the floor, he drilled a step-back triple, which set the table for a mini explosion down the stretch.

Edwards also drove to the hoop, pulled up for mid-range jumpers and buried shots along the baseline. His full arsenal was on display as he scored 14 points down the stretch on 6 for 8 shooting to lift Minnesota to a 122-111 home win over Dallas.

“Ant was awesome,” Finch said. “He finished the game like he can. I thought his shot selection was really good for the most part. He took the right shots. In clutch time, he got to his spots pretty simply.”

That’s long been Finch’s message to Edwards when it comes to end-of-game scoring: Don’t find dribble combinations to get to shots, find simple ways to get to spots. Once you establish your spots you will consistently cash jumpers from, you become infinitely harder for defenses to stop.

Edwards has had the top-of-the-arc triple since the start of last season. But he’s since added the elbow jumper as well as the mid-range, turnaround on the baseline as go-to shots he can generate against essentially any defensive scheme.

“I think Finchy is a big part of my success,” Edwards said. “He’s been preaching that to me for the last two years, so he’s a big part of that.”

It’s why Edwards is shooting 60% from the floor in clutch time this season — segments of the final five minutes of games when the margin is within five points. That’s the best mark in the NBA among the 65 players with north of 25 clutch-time field goal attempts.

Edwards said the development of his 3-point shot in recent years has opened up much on the offensive end.

“I think teams really don’t want me to shoot the step back going left, so they be pressed up,” he said. “They kind of let me go by them, honestly. It’s starting to feel like they just let me go to the rim. So just trying to pick my spots – when to shoot the three, when to get to the pull up, when to get to the rim, just reading the game.”

And choosing correctly more times than not.

“Year after year, I think his decision-making is the key,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “For him to pick his spots and not settling every time and be able to attack and make the right play when they put two on him – find his teammates, trust his teammates. I think he’s been getting better and better, and this year is the best I’ve seen him. It’s huge. We need it. The ball is in his hands, so we need him to be able to make the best decision and to be the best offensive player in the world in those clutch minutes.”

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Friday wasn’t the best of evenings for the Minnesota and St. Thomas women’s hockey teams. Both were upended in WCHA play and now head into Saturday looking to gain series splits.

Minnesota-Duluth 3, Minnesota 2 (OT)

The Gophers battled back from a 2-1 deficit midway through the third period to force overtime at Minnesota-Duluth.

Unfortunately, Minnesota’s rally only delayed the result as the Bulldogs prevailed 3-2 in the extra session.

Tova Henderson’s unassisted tally at 1:41 of OT iced the result and handed the Gophers a fourth consecutive defeat.

Minnesota took the early lead as Madison Kaiser’s goal at 16:33 of the first period gave the visitors a 1-0 edge at Amsoil Arena on the shore of Lake Superior.

The advantage didn’t last long. UMD evened the count at 1-1 with a strike at 10:21. The hosts staked their claim to the game at 12:36 of the middle frame on a goal from Maddie Burr.

Duluth’s 2-1 lead carried well into the third period before Ava Lindsay breathed new life into the Gophers at 9:30 of the stanza to send the game into overtime knotted at 2-2.

With the prospect of a shootout ticking ever closer, Henderson closed the door on Minnesota’s comeback. Bulldogs goalie Eve Gascon made 31 saves as her Gophers counterpart, Hannah Clark, made 29 stops. The loss dropped Minnesota to 24-8-1 overall and 18-8-1 in conference play.

The Bulldogs, as locked into fourth place in the WCHA standings as the Gophers are cemented to third place, improved to 18-12-3 overall and 14-10-3 in the circuit with one game remaining in the regular season.

Minnesota and UMD will take the ice for that final pre-playoff contest at 2 p.m. Saturday inside Duluth’s lakeside arena. The game is scheduled to be televised on BTN+.

Minnesota State 5, St. Thomas 2

An exciting first period was followed by two more that didn’t go the Tommies’ way at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in a 5-2 loss.

The opening frame set up well for a big day in St. Paul. St. Thomas gave up the opening goal, but followed with two of their own in scintillating fashion to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

After the Mavericks drew first blood at 6:56, Rylee Bartz struck back for the Tommies just 24 seconds later to make the score 1-1. Then, just as fans began to head to get concessions, Ella Boerger had them standing up for a different reason as she scored with just four ticks left on the clock.

Minnesota State got down to business in the second period, scoring the lone tally of the frame at 15:26 to draw even at 2-2.

That’s how the score remained until 16:09 of the third, when the visitors took their second lead of the game at 3-2. Unlike their brief first-period edge, this one proved to be permanent.

The Mavericks added a power play goal at 12:25 and a final tally with 2:15 remaining to skate away with the three-goal win.

St. Thomas goaltender Julia Minotti made 27 saves in the game, while MSU netminder Hailey Hansen saved 23 of 25 attempts.

The loss ended any Tommies hopes of leapfrogging the Mavericks in the WCHA regular-season standings. MSU (14-17-2 overall, 8-17-2 WCHA, 27 points) took a four-point edge on St. Thomas (12-20-1, 7-19-1, 23 points) in the conference with the win and just one game left to go before the playoffs.

The two teams go at it one more time at 2 p.m. Saturday inside Anderson Arena.

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Midway through the third period Friday night at Anderson Arena, the St. Thomas men’s hockey team appeared well on its way to securing the job at hand — gaining control of their own destiny in the battle for the CCHA regular season championship.

Leading Augustana 3-1, the 15th-ranked Tommies seemed on the verge of moving into first place, two points ahead of idle Michigan Tech in the penultimate week of the season. In the end, Augustana had other plans.

The 18th-ranked Vikings scored with just over five minutes to play in regulation to make it a 3-2 game, then tied it in the final minute after pulling their goalie. They then won the shootout following three-on-three overtime for a 4-3 victory.

The Tommies came away with one point, which moved them into a tie for first with Michigan Tech, but the mood was somber on the home team’s side.

“We were just too loose,” St. Thomas coach Rico Blasi said of the sudden turn of events in the third period. “That’s a good hockey team. I thought it was a good game for 55 minutes, and then we lost our focus and they made us pay.”

The Vikings were a desperate team in the third period, and their added influx of intensity helped tilt the game in their favor.

“I think we got away from our game and it ended up giving them some momentum,” Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin. “It ended up biting us in the butt. We didn’t play a full 60 minutes.”

“Once the momentum swings in the other team’s favor, it’s often hard to get it back. “It think we’ve just got to stick together,” Wahlin said. “Obviously, there’s ups and downs in hockey games. That’s how it is every night. We’ve just got to come together even closer, and tonight we didn’t do that.”

The Vikings looked like a different team from the middle of the third period on. So did the Tommies.

“We had the puck on our stick a couple times and we just didn’t make the play,” Blasi said. “We didn’t execute.”

Trailing 1-0 after first period, the Tommies scored twice in the second period. Alexandros Gaffney took advantage of a Vikings turnover to score his 17th goal of the season at 6:07 of the period from in tight.

Then, with the teams playing four on four, Tommies defenseman Hayes Hundley collected his sixth of the season at 13:59 on a wrist shot from the slot.

When Wahlin scored on a power play at 6:07 of of the third period to give the Tommies a 3-1 lead, the Tommies looked they were going to eliminate the Vikings from the mix in the wild chase for the CCHA title.

Now, the Vikings are one point out of first, and are sure to have a lot of life on Saturday night.

As for what he wants his team to take from the loss heading into the weekend finale, Blasi said, “We have to take the first 55 minutes and finish the job.”
Wahlin had his own take.

“It’s a must win,” he said.

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards returned to Minnesota with his All-Star Game MVP award and scored 40 points to help the Timberwolves hold off Dallas 122-111 on Friday, the 10th straight loss for the Mavericks.

Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves dunks the ball against the Dallas Mavericks in the first quarter at Target Center on February 20, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

Rudy Gobert had 22 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks and Naz Reid added 21 points for the Timberwolves, who squandered a 17-point first-half lead before Edwards took over down the stretch.

Tyus Jones tied the game at 103 on a floater with 6:55 left, capping a 12-2 spurt for the Mavericks and ending a stretch of 36:32 during which the Timberwolves were ahead. But Edwards answered with a step-back 3-pointer and Reid hit one too less than a minute later, and the Mavericks never grabbed the lead.

Edwards, who has eight 40-point games this season, had 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Khris Middleton had 18 points and Marvin Bagley added 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Mavericks, who are on their longest losing streak in 28 years.

The Mavericks last won on Jan. 22 against the Golden State Warriors. They played without star rookie Cooper Flagg for the second straight game, whose sprained foot needed more a little time to heal than the All-Star break afforded him. Max Christie (ankle) was also out for a team that’s also missing Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively with injuries for the remainder of the season.

The Timberwolves started 8 of 13 from 3-point range, posted a 40-point first quarter and ballooned their lead to 17 points late in the second quarter before a lackadaisical start to the second half. Julius Randle finished with just 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting.

Gobert was given a flagrant foul in the second quarter that will trigger an automatic one-game suspension due to his running season total.

Minnesota hosts Philadelphia at 6 p.m. Sunday in a game televised on FDSN.

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