PORTLAND — The Portland Trail Blazers made their way to a playoff spot thanks to a young and hungry bunch.
But as the saying goes, there’s always somebody younger and hungrier waiting for you to fall off.
The Timberwolves’ record does not show how dangerous they are, but those at the Moda Center left well aware of what is to come, as the Wolves knocked off the Blazers, 106-105, thanks to a game-winning hook shot by Karl-Anthony Towns with 1.8 seconds left.
“It was one of those things, I didn’t know who was in front of me at all, I just had to make the basket for my teammates,” Towns said of his game-winning shot over Al-Farouq Aminu.
Towns finished with 27 points and nine rebounds.
Moments before, it looked like the Blazers would walk out with an improbable win after Damian Lillard earned a 4-point play to give the Blazers a 1-point lead with 3.6 seconds left, the product of a continuation call as Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio attempted to foul him down by three.
But the Blazers could not escape and saw their chances for the fifth seed take a small hit as they no longer control their own destiny.
Should the Mavericks win their last three games of the season, they will be the fifth seed in the West playoffs.
“Obviously it was tough to lose that game, it came down to the final minute,” Stotts said. “But we didn’t make enough plays to win the game throughout game.”
Lillard agreed with his coach.
“Basically because we probably didn’t deserve to win we didn’t,” Lillard said. “A play like that happens at the end and I think it’s so much bigger than that play. So many things we didn’t do well, they had a lot of times when they scored 5, 6 possessions in a row. We just weren’t sharp enough tonight and it came back to bite us at the end.”
Minnesota has a player in Towns who should be the consensus NBA Rookie of the Year, and they also have last year’s Rookie of the Year, Andrew Wiggins, who finished with 23 points.
The Timberwolves entered the game winners of their last two games, including a stunning road win at the home of the Warriors.
Neither team shot well to start the game with the Wolves missing their first five shots and the Blazers missing seven of their first eight.
Lillard was the catalyst, which has been a rare sighting as of late.
Except for the game at Golden State last Sunday when he dropped 39 points, Lillard has been taking more of backseat as of late.
Perhaps it was having two days of rest or that the Timberwolves were hot coming in, but Lillard took it upon himself to attack the Wolves defense and look for his own shot.
As a result, Lillard had nine first quarter points and the Blazers enjoyed a seven-point lead.
Lillard finished with a game-high 31 points and seven assists, but the Wolves surrounded the Blazers from then on and controlled the game from there.
Stotts pointed to second chance points, loose balls and points in the paint as problems areas for the Portland defense from the first quarter on.
The Wolves scored 46 of their 48 points in the paint after the first quarter and out-rebounded the Blazers by 5.
Wolves bench players and Towns made a considerable dent into the Blazers’ early lead, getting to within two points in the first four minutes of the second quarter.
A Shabazz Muhammad basket with 6:12 left in the second quarter gave the Wolves a 40-38 lead.
Wiggins started to heat up and the Wolves defense as a group made things much harder on the Blazers while they got hot offensively, putting up a 32-point second quarter.
Despite Lillard’s aggression, the Blazers trailed by four at halftime.
And the Wolves would not relent, a sign of things to come in the Northwest Division and a sign that the Blazers would not win this game easily, if they won at all.
A Lillard 3-pointer with 5:37 left in the third quarter gave the Blazers their first lead of the second half.
But the Wolves still held a 75-72 lead after three quarters.
The Blazers had been here before with the Wolves, trailing by 17 in both trips to Minnesota before coming back to win.
Like the two games in Minnesota, Saturday’s game went down to the wire.
For the young Wolves, the third time was the charm even though there was a moment where it looked like the Blazers would be the charmed ones.
The Blazers are off Sunday and will practice Monday before playing their season finale Wednesday.
