Timberwolves, playing without Anthony Edwards, fall to Grizzlies, 116-110

Chris Hine, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Dec 17, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Timberwolves have been able to find a way to win in recent weeks both with key personnel out and while not playing their best basketball.

Even though Memphis was more shorthanded coming into Target Center, the Wolves and Grizzlies were in a rock fight, with neither team shooting particularly well.

In a game the Wolves would like to have back, the Grizzlies came away with a 116-110 victory. Jock Landale hit a dagger 3 to put Memphis up 109-103 with 1 minutes, 9 seconds left.

Wolves All-Star guard Anthony Edwards sat out because of a foot injury.

After falling behind in the third, the Wolves couldn’t overtake the Grizzlies, who held a small lead throughout the fourth. The Wolves shot 40% (30% from 3-point range) with multiple scorers having off nights. Julius Randle was 9 for 21 (21 points), Donte DiVincenzo 6 for 16 (19 points) and Naz Reid 6 for 16 (16 points). Rudy Gobert had 16 points and 16 rebounds.

The Wolves had 17 turnovers.

Jaren Jackson Jr. had 28 points for Memphis along with tough defense against the Wolves at the rim. Landale finished with 20 points for the Grizzlies, who were without Ja Morant and Zach Edey, among others.

Turning point

Two players accounted for six of the Wolves' seven field goals in a third quarter that started well and went south.

DiVincenzo was 3 for 6 as the Wolves opened up a 76-67 lead. But with the Wolves going to a triple big lineup to combat some of the size from Memphis, the Grizzlies went on a 14-0 run.

Wolves coach Chris Finch called a pair of timeouts during the run, but the Wolves couldn’t get on track defensively. McDaniels was 3 for 4 and the rest of the team was 1 for 13.

How it started

The Wolves had plenty of energy and hustle in the early going, but they couldn’t get shots to fall. Randle opened 2 for 10 and they shot just 11 for 28 (39%) in the first quarter.

A good portion of their scoring came via second-chance points. They scored 11 of their 27 first-quarter points that way. Gobert had seven rebounds in all, three on the offensive end.

Bench support

With the Wolves struggling to score, they got a lift from their bench in the second quarter. Reid finished the first half with 11 points while Terrence Shannon and Rob Dillingham each hit a pair of buckets as the Wolves opened up a 38-31 lead, their largest lead of the night. But the Wolves couldn’t build on that lead, as Jackson had 17 in the first half while the Grizzlies had 12 second-chance points in the first half.

Edwards, Conley out again

Edwards (right foot injury maintenance) and Mike Conley (right Achilles tendinopathy) each missed their third consecutive games.

Finch said at Tuesday’s practice Edwards was able to do player development work but did not practice. Conley was getting “closer and closer” to a return, Finch said.