Jaden McDaniels scored 30 points, Anthony Edwards had 29 and the Minnesota Timberwolves finished strongly for a 116-104 victory against Los Angeles Lakers in match 3 of their quarter-final series of the West Conference Friday evening in Minneapolis.
Julius Randle added 22 points for Minnesota, who took a 2-1 lead in the best series of seven. Naz Reid and Donte Divincenzo came out of the Chip bench in 11 and 10 points, respectively.
LeBron James scored 38 points on a shot of 13 for 21 and caught 10 rebounds to lead Los Angeles. Austin Reaves scored 20 points, thanks largely to five 3 points, and Luka Doncic scored 17 points, but only made 6 of the 16 shots on the ground and 2 out of 8 to 3 points. Dononic also produced five of the 19 reversals of Los Angeles, but contributed eight assists and seven rebounds.
The Timberwolves outstripped Lakers 62-46 in the second half.
Donateic went to the rim and made a recovery jumper at a score at 103-all with 4:37 to do. Los Angeles had dragged 100-93 after Reid had overturned a 3:31 pointer to play.
The Timberwolves resumed their lead to seven points in the next two minutes.
Edwards gave the Minnesota at the top 106-103 with a 3 points from the top of the key with 4:19 to go. Reid followed with a 3-point left wing to do it 109-103.
After Reaves did one of the two free throws to reduce the deficit to 109-104, Edwards again took control. He led against James and finished with a lay-up to increase the advance of Timberwolves to 111-104 with 2:18 to play.
Edwards then put the hysterical crowd when he dribbled between his legs and fell for a long jump shot to do it 113-104 with 1:06 on the left.
Rui Hachimura missed a 3-point pointer at the opposite end for Lakers, and McDaniels added to the late increase with a 3-point right-up to make 116-104 with 39.1 seconds to do.
The Timberwolves led 86-84 at the end of the third quarter.
An 8-0 race at the start of the third quarter allowed Minnesota to exceed the Lakers. Edwards and Randle struck 3 consecutive points to punctuate the race, which ended when James scored on an alley dunk to pull Los Angeles in the 67-65.
Edwards provided a recovery game to give Timberwolves an advantage of 76-72 with 4:39 to do in the third quarter. He led the basic line and climbed in front of a therefore jumping for a dunk.
The Lakers led 58-54 to half.
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