Rudy Gobert does much of the grunt work for Minnesota, defending the paint, setting screens and grabbing boards.

Friday night provided a rare time to heavily feature the center’s offense.

Brooklyn was down nearly all of its regular rotational players as it made a point to eat another loss and secure its draft positioning. The lineup the Nets trotted out for Friday’s contest at Target Center was particularly small. Which meant the Wolves’ 7-footer could do effectively whatever he wanted without much resistance.

And he did just that.

Gobert tied a career high with 35 points to go with 11 rebounds as Minnesota trounced Brooklyn, 117-91.

“It felt great,” Gobert said in his postgame, on-court interview. “Obviously, we all knew what the opponent was giving us, so just tried to do a good job setting the tone. My teammates did a great job looking for me, finding me, and I just had to finish at the rim.”

The Wolves host the tanking Utah Jazz on Sunday, needing just a win to secure at top-six seed in the Western Conference playoffs and avoid the play-in tournament.

Minnesota may be without Anthony Edwards in that game. The guard picked up his 18th technical foul of the season in the second quarter on Friday, and if that’s not rescinded by the NBA, Edwards will be suspended for the bout with Utah.

“I did not really get a good or clear explanation,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said of the tech. “It didn’t seem like there was any egregious or overly demonstrative (action) or anything like that.”

In a pool report, NBA official Bill Kennedy said Edwards received the tech “for use of profanity directed toward an official.”

Either way, the Wolves would still have Gobert. That’s about all they’ve needed of late as they’ve continued to handle business against the NBA’s cellar dwellers. Gobert is simply too big, strong and relentless for undermanned rosters to contain. His efforts on the glass and defending of the paint prevent hefty underdogs from generating any momentum, or hope.

Such was the case Friday. It was all Minnesota after Brooklyn got off to a quick start over the game’s first couple of minutes. The Wolves led by as many as 28 points in the game.

By the final frame, Minnesota was making a concerted effort to reward its big man with as many touches as possible, whether they came from lobs or simple interior feeds. Gobert continued to capitalize. He went 13 for 17 from the field.

“He did a really good job of catching and finishing and being strong in there and making the right play when the time presented itself, too,” Finch said.

Julius Randle, another beneficiary of Brooklyn’s lack of size, added 21 points on 8 for 11 shooting.

Gobert tied his career high in the closing minutes. And there were a few more possessions in which he could’ve set a new career mark.

The crowd chanted “Rudy” one possession after another, but Timberwolves coach Chris Finch cleared the Wolves’ bench with fewer than four minutes to play and the win well in hand.

Minnesota took care of business Friday. If it does so one more time Sunday, it will lock up its fourth consecutive playoff appearance.

“I think just stay locked in, keep doing everything we do to prepare mentally and physically,” Gobert said. “Just be ourselves and we’ll be fine.”

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Riley Greene fought through an eight-pitch plate appearance against Jorge Alcala before finally being awarded first base. Spencer Torkelson saw 11 more pitches — two which he almost took out of the ballpark on long foul balls — before he, too, drew a walk and wound up on first base.

Those two walks set the stage for a big sixth inning for the Detroit Tigers, one in which they erased the Twins’ three-run lead and grabbed ahold of one of their own for good in Friday night’s 7-6 win over Minnesota in the series opener at Target Field.

A softly hit groundball — it was tapped at just 38.7 miles per hour — preceded Zach McKinstry’s two-run single, a hit which sliced the Twins’ lead to just one and spelled the end of Alcala’s night.

Alcala made way for Justin Topa, who allowed a game-tying single. Another run scored on Trey Sweeney’s groundout, giving the Tigers the lead before Topa could extract the Twins from the mess.

All told, it was a four-run inning, one that completely wiped out the three-run lead the Twins had scrapped for an inning prior.

Byron Buxton, back after a two-day absence because of a personal matter, was in the middle of it all for the Twins’ offense, scoring their first run in the second inning after a walk and a stolen base. Another run scored in the fifth on Buxton’s groundout, and he scored later that inning on a mad dash home. Buxton would also hit a home run.

Ty France also drove in a pair of runs as part of a three-hit day for him, and Edouard Julien also collected three hits. But their efforts weren’t enough on a night when the bullpen gave up six runs and the defense made a pair of errors that led to two unearned runs.

The first came in the fifth inning, spelling the end of David Festa’s start. Festa, called up from Triple-A on Friday, turned in a promising performance, one of the positives for the Twins on Friday night.

The right-hander pitched around a bases-loaded situation in the third inning and had held the Tigers scoreless heading into the fifth inning. It would have remained that way had Matt Wallner’s throw back to third base not ended up in the dugout, allowing Dillon Dingler, the runner he was attempting to throw out, to score. That play tied the game.

Festa took a no-decision in the loss, one that dropped the Twins to 4-10 on the season and was their fifth in their past six games.

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More than 100 supporters gathered at the Fort Snelling Immigration Court on Friday morning to show solidarity with a University of Minnesota graduate student facing deportation.

Doğukan Günaydın, 28, is a citizen of Turkey who’s been jailed for two weeks. The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to deport Günaydın because of a drunken driving conviction.

Günaydın’s attorney, Hannah Brown, argued in court that Günaydın’s DWI offense didn’t amount to the level of public safety risk as alleged by the Department of Homeland Security. She said that when he was arrested on an early morning in June 2023, Günaydın was traveling at a low rate of speed in downtown Minneapolis.

Attorney Laura Trosen, representing the DHS, said impaired driving still poses a public safety threat, and she argued that the government has the authority to deport him.

Günaydın didn’t testify on his own behalf. Judge Sarah Mazzie said she will consider the arguments and issue a decision at a later date.

In addition to challenging his detention in immigration court, which is a division of the Justice Department, Günaydın has also filed a petition for his release in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

Günaydın is scheduled for his removal hearing, which is a separate proceeding, next week.

Supporters: ‘Hands off Doğukan’

Due to limited seating in the courtroom, the majority of people who rallied in support of Günaydın gathered on the plaza outside the Fort Snelling federal building and watched a livestream of the proceedings on their phones.

Serra Hakyemez, a professor of anthropology at the U, joined the Friday morning rally. Hakyemez, who is also a native of Turkey, said it’s important for faculty and students to show their support for Günaydın because international graduate students are feeling vulnerable.

“They’re very concerned about today, tomorrow, and their future. I think Doğukan’s case shows that anyone can be detained, and international students are feeling very concerned,” she said.

Dozens of foreign students targeted

Officials with the Minnesota State system — which includes seven universities and 26 colleges across the state — said at least two dozen students in the system have had their visas revoked or immigration records terminated.

Half of those students were at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Other schools with multiple students affected included St. Cloud State, and Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall. Those numbers do not include the University of Minnesota Twin Cities or other U of M campuses, or private institutions around the state.

Earlier this week, Metropolitan State University student Rattanand Ratsantiboon sued DHS to preserve his ability to remain a full-time student. The lawsuit alleges that DHS illegally terminated his student status.

The 31-year-old citizen of Thailand was convicted of a DWI offense in 2018 and completed the conditions of his probation in 2022.

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Jurors began deliberating Friday in the first-degree murder trial of John Lee Edmondson, who prosecutors say fatally shot his cousin and a local chef after a funeral reception in St. Paul in 2023.

Jurors left for the day without a verdict and will resume deliberations Monday morning at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul. They deliberated for about five hours after the defense delivered its closing argument. The prosecution made its closing Thursday.

Larry Jiles Jr., 34, and Edmondson’s cousin, Troy Robert Kennedy, 37, were shot outside a senior-living apartment building at University Avenue and Dale Street on Feb. 25, 2023, following a repast for an 80-year-old woman. Witnesses told police it was peaceful, until an argument broke out.

Larry Jiles Jr., left, and Troy Kennedy. (Courtesy of the family)

Jiles and Kennedy were relatives of the woman, and Jiles made most of the food for the gathering.

“By all accounts, Larry Jiles Jr. was doing some good things that day for the family,” Edmondson’s attorney, Ryan Pacyga, told jurors Friday. “That is commendable. But there are some things that just change everything, aren’t there?”

When Jiles “brought the gun out to the crowd,” Pacyga said, “that changed everything.”

Edmondson, 54, of St. Louis Park, is claiming defense of others in Jiles’ killing. He testified that he was driving his mother and niece in the parking lot when his mother spotted Jiles with a gun.

Edmondson “made a beeline” over to the group and tried to push down the gun as Jiles was raising it, Pacyga told jurors. He fired twice, hitting Jiles in the left and back sides of his neck.

Pacyga said there is no evidence the others who were standing beside Jiles and arguing were armed with guns.

John Lee Edmondson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

“When Larry is raising the gun, it’s completely reasonable to believe that in that fraction of a second other people are exposed to death or great bodily harm,” Pacyga said.

The charges say a witness told police that Jiles was not carrying a gun when he was shot and it did not appear that he provoked an altercation.

Pacyga pointed out to jurors that 11 months later, Jiles’ sister, Chanel Jiles, told police in a follow-up interview that he did have a gun on him. It was never recovered.

Edmondson had nothing to do with the argument, Pacyga said. He reminded jurors how they saw a video from inside the community room showing Edmondson and Jiles getting along, taking a selfie or watching a video on a cellphone.

“There’s nothing going on with John Edmondson where there’s a plot to kill,” Pacyga said.

Meanwhile, an autopsy showed Kennedy had two “distant gunshot wounds” — one to his left forearm and the other to his left hip that cut across an artery.

Pacyga said Edmondson acted in self-defense in Kennedy’s killing because of the ensuing gun battle. He noted how police recovered seven casings in an area where the shooter was firing back at Edmondson and where Kennedy was running.

Police tape and evidence markers at the scene of a double homicide in the parking lot of Frogtown Square at University Avenue and Dale Street in St. Paul on Feb. 25, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Police found 39 casings in the parking lot, 10 of which were fired from Edmondson’s gun.

“(Edmondson) is the first one to fire,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Hassan Tahir said in the state’s closing. “Then it became almost a war zone after that. But he’s the one that made a decision to pull that trigger not once, but twice. And many times thereafter.”

Video footage from the nearby Neighborhood Development Center showed how quickly things escalated, Tahir said.

“It was six seconds after (Edmondson) got out of the car and until people started running,” he said. “And the defendant, based on what he’s observed doing in this video, simply does not fit the criteria of defending others when he shot Larry Jiles Jr.”

Tahir said it happened so quickly that Edmondson “could have made no actual determination of what was even going on before he fired those shots.”

Edmondson shot Kennedy as he was firing back at others, Tahir said.

Prosecutors initially charged Edmondson with two counts of second-degree intentional murder and one count of second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony.

A grand jury in September indicted him on six counts: first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree intentional murder while committing a felony, two counts of second-degree intentional murder, second-degree unintentional murder and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person.

Edmondson has a prior murder conviction.

On Oct. 5, 1993, he drove three men to Selby Avenue and Milton Street in St. Paul, and one of them fatally shot Dural Woods, 19, during an attempted robbery, according to a newspaper report from the time.

A jury in May 1994 convicted Edmondson of aiding and abetting second-degree murder. A judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison, which was one-and-a-half times the state sentencing guidelines.

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