Portland is a cellar dweller in the Western Conference on any night of the season. But on Monday in Minneapolis, the Blazers were down eight of their top 10 players on their roster.

Which left the Blazers’ roster somewhere in between the levels of an NBA team and a G-League squad.

So, even on the second night of a back to back, Minnesota was a heavy, heavy favorite. It’s one of those games where you wonder if there’s a way for the Wolves to possibly lose.

And then you see Karl-Anthony Towns simply live in foul trouble for much of the night and Anthony Edwards deliver maybe his most lifeless performance since his rookie season. If those two were representative of the entire team’s performance, Minnesota indeed would have lost.

But, fortunately for Minnesota, it has Rudy Gobert.

The big man does what he always does, controlling the paint on both ends and dominating the glass. His contributions are not dependent on getting the ball or knocking down shots.

His size and physicality all-but guarantees production. Gobert produced in a big way Monday. The center tallied 25 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots to carry Minnesota to a 119-114 victory over the Blazers.

It was all needed on a night where Towns played just six first-half minutes while picking up three fouls, and Edwards didn’t start because he wasn’t on the court in time for tip-off. Frankly, he essentially took the first three quarters off before showing slight proof of life in the fourth.

Without anything from its two stars, Minnesota flexed its depth. Mike Conley finished with 19 points and seven dimes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 13 points and Naz Reid went 4 for 4 from deep.

Anfernee Simons — the one relatively high-end player for Portland who was active — finished with 34 points and 14 assists to guide Portland’s offense, which was hyper-effective against Minnesota’s generally suffocating defense.

Portland (17-43) hung around for much of the night before Minnesota (43-19) finally hit a couple shots late to create enough separation to feel comfortable in the closing minutes.

The contest was the final game of Minnesota’s seven-game homestand, in which the Wolves went 4-3. They now embark on a six-game road trip, which opens Thursday in Indiana.

By JACK DURA (Associated Press)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Donald Trump won the North Dakota Republican presidential caucuses on Monday, adding to his string of victories heading into Super Tuesday.

The former president finished first in voting conducted at 12 caucus sites, ahead of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The results resumes Trump’s winning streak, which was briefly interrupted on Sunday when Haley notched her first victory of the campaign in the District of Columbia’s primary.

The White House hopefuls now turn their attention to Super Tuesday, when results will pour in from 16 states in contests that amount to the single biggest delegate haul of any day in the presidential primary. Trump and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, are dominating their races and are on track to winning their nominations later this month.

Under North Dakota’s rules, candidates are eligible to win delegates if they finish with at least 20% of the vote. However, a candidate who wins at least 60% of the vote receives all of the state’s 29 delegates.

Four candidates were on the ballot, including Trump and Nikki Haley. The other candidates, who have received little attention, were Florida businessman David Stuckenberg and Texas businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley, who recently ended his campaign.

In 2016, it was a North Dakota delegate who helped Trump secure the number needed for the Republican presidential nomination.

He swept North Dakota’s three electoral college votes in 2016 and 2020, winning about 63% and 65% of those votes, respectively.

As president, Trump visited Bismarck and Mandan in 2017 to talk about tax cuts, and he campaigned twice in Fargo in 2018 for Kevin Cramer in the then-congressman’s successful Senate bid against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

North Dakota’s Democratic-NPL Party is holding a presidential primary almost entirely by mail, with mail-in voting from Feb. 20 to March 30, and limited in-person voting for residents of Indian reservations. President Joe Biden, Rep. Dean Phillips and six others are on the ballot.

A third party will count ballots in Fargo on March 30, with results available on the party’s website afterward.

Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic caucuses in 2016 and 2020.

One resident and two firefighters suffered injuries related to Sunday’s wildfire in rural Waseca that approached homes in southern Minnesota.

The firefighters received treatment at the scene and hospital and were released, according to Waseca Fire Chief Jason Forshee, while the resident’s condition from burn wounds wasn’t immediately known.

Numerous crews worked to contain the grass fire on both sides of Snake Trail in Waseca County between about noon and 10 p.m. The fire burned less than 2,000 acres starting from the state’s Findley wildlife refuge and jumping across the trail road to the state’s Moonan wildlife refuge.

Investigators believe a man-made brush fire grew into the wider fire, said Waseca County Sheriff Jay Dulas. The incident remains under investigation.

No structures were affected, though the flames crept up to within feet of some.

Crews remained in the area monitoring for hotspots Monday, said Jake Froyum, regional fire specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The change in weather from hot, dry, windiness Sunday to cold, damp conditions Monday helped.

“We found some hotspots and some smoke and things that we’re trying to get wrapped up so we can have this well contained and feel really good about leaving it at the end of the day today,” he said.

Teams will continue to assess the perimeter on a day-to-day basis as the land dries out.

Michelle Lynch, who lives on Snake Trail, described being ready to evacuate as fires approached in three directions. Marshes in the wildlife refuges near her burned and she could smell smoke inside her home.

At one point she yelled for her husband to grab the luggage. They threw in necessities — the luggage remains loaded in a vehicle — in case they had to flee.

“We’ve lived here for over 27 years and never seen anything like this,” Lynch said. “The firefighters from all over, they are true heroes and why all our houses are still standing today.”

She didn’t feel out of the woods yet as crews inspected hotspots but felt rare thankfulness for a few snowflakes in the air Monday.

“We’ll take every drop that comes,” she said. “I’m usually praying for heat.”

Sunday’s record temperatures in the 70s, gusty winds and a dry winter leading up to it combined to heighten fire risks. Data from the National Interstate Fire Center showed increased wildfire risks in Minnesota beginning in March and continuing through May.

Typical winter snowpack flattens vegetation and adds moisture to it, Froyum said. That snowpack was absent this year.

“The fuels are ready,” he said. “Now we combine that with temperatures that are way above normal, humidities that dipped fairly low and you throw some wind on it and it resulted in fire behavior and fire spread that was beyond what you could directly attack and put out real well.”

Other residents on Snake Trail reportedly had to evacuate their homes, said Forshee during a media briefing Monday at Blowers Park, near where the fires started. Firefighters and farmers used tankers and other resources to protect the structures from the fire’s path.

“About 12 houses were evacuated,” he said. “Either people self evacuated or we asked them to leave.”

Numerous agencies, from local fire departments to sheriff’s offices to state and federal agencies, responded to the fire. Waseca’s fire department and the county’s sheriff’s office offered a thank-you to the teams in the release.

“We’re very fortunate for all the support that we’ve gotten as first responders and for all the agencies who helped us out,” Forshee said.

Western Minnesota wildfire

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 acres of grassland are estimated to have burned, including in a wildlife refuge, just a few miles southwest of Fergus Falls on Sunday afternoon.

Wendell Volunteer Fire Department Chief Chad Biss, whose department led the regional response to the wildfire, said there’s a long stretch of grassland in the area that made for a challenging response.

“Between the fuel source and the high winds, it’s moving rapidly, so it’s hard to get ahead of it. Not a fire that you probably attack directly on. It’s one where you’re looking to backburn and burn itself out,” Biss said.

No structures were damaged.

“Yesterday, we probably had three building sites that were kind of in the line of fire, and all three were well protected,” Biss said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

This report includes information from the Forum News Service.

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