Timberwolves, with snappy conclusion, evade Magic for seventh victory in a row

Chris Hine, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Mar 14, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Timberwolves began a stretch of five straight home games Friday night, with four of those matchups coming against teams with worse records than theirs.

The problem for the Wolves is they’re not always the most consistent team at home (18-14 entering Friday). A short-handed Orlando team, without Jalen Suggs, was the first of these opponents on the ledger. Friday’s game was anything but easy, but the Wolves still came away 118-111 for their seventh consecutive win.

The Wolves got the building going during the opening minutes of the fourth quarter on a 15-3 burst. Their defensive intensity picked up after a rough third quarter in which the Magic took an 87-78 lead. The Wolves took a 93-90 lead in the first 4 minutes, 7 seconds. Donte DiVincenzo had six points during that run as the Wolves opened the quarter 7 for 7. Orlando was 1 for 7 with three turnovers over that span. After that initial burst, offense stalled for both teams, and the score remained 95-94 for just over two minutes before a Jaden McDaniels 3 put the Wolves up four.

After Orlando tied the score 98-98 with four consecutive points, Anthony Edwards made his presence known. Edwards nailed a 3 and finished a tough layup in traffic while falling down to put the Wolves up five. Then after he missed a 3 on the next trip down, Julius Randle cleaned up the offensive glass for a 105-98 Wolves lead with 2:13 to play. Edwards went to the corner of the floor to celebrate with a rocking crowd, and the Wolves had enough room to stave off defeat. Edwards finished with 28 points, Randle had 22 while DiVincenzo had 14 off the bench. Paolo Banchero had 43 for the Magic.

Tight one through one

Even though the Magic are shorthanded and under .500, they still had the second-most efficient defense in the league, and they tried to muck up the game in the early going with their physical style. Edwards responded by attacking the rim in the first quarter for seven points. He got to the free-throw line six times compared to just two attempts from the floor.

Later in the quarter, the Wolves started generating some crisp ball movement as Randle got more involved offensively. He finished with 10 first-quarter points and had a couple of nice sequences, one with Jaylen Clark and another with Naz Reid, that ended up in Wolves buckets. He also had two assists. Orlando was only down 33-30 after one thanks to nine free throws in the first quarter, and that foul trouble put Jaden McDaniels on the bench with two fouls. Banchero had 12 in the first on five free throws.

Wolves stay in front, slightly

The Magic came in as the worst 3-point shooting team in the league at 31%, but they were 9 for 17 in the first half (53%), and that enabled them to keep the game close as the Wolves maintained a small lead in the second quarter. Caleb Houston was 4 for 5 from 3-point range off the bench. With the score tied 55-55, the Wolves went on a 7-0 run as their bench unit of Reid, DiVincenzo and Nickeil Alexander-Walker closed out the half with Randle and Edwards.

The Wolves, for as good as they have been on the offensive glass the second half of the season, had just one offensive rebound in the first half. Orlando had seven second-chance points, and that’s why the score was just 62-58 at the half despite the Wolves shooting 54% in the half.

Orlando takes control in third

The Wolves offense took a step back as Orlando took the lead in the third quarter. They committed six turnovers as Orlando grabbed the lead toward the end of the quarter. Mike Conley sparked a 7-0 Wolves run that gave them an 87-78 lead with a 3 and drawing an offensive foul. But when he checked out, the Wolves stalled offensively. They forced shots, forced passes in traffic and shot just 6 for 19 from the field. Orlando went 11 for 20, with Caleb Houstan canning another pair of 3s, the same number the Wolves had in the quarter in eight attempts. After the Wolves led 75-70, the Magic closed the quarter on a 17-3 run.