Shaedon Sharpe puts up 33 as Blazers beat Wolves again
Shaedon Sharpe scored a career-best 33 points to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 106-98 victory over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
Rookie Donovan Clingan excelled with 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocked shots as Portland defeated Minnesota for the second consecutive night. The host Trail Blazers won 122-108 on Tuesday.
Dalano Banton scored 13 points for Portland, which won consecutive games for the first time this season. Toumani Camara had 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals and Scoot Henderson also had 11 points for the Trail Blazers.
Anthony Edwards scored 24 points and had four steals for the Timberwolves but missed all nine of his 3-point attempts. Last Friday in Minneapolis, he made nine treys and scored 37 points as the Timberwolves rolled to a 127-102 victory over Portland.
Julius Randle amassed 20 points and 10 rebounds and Naz Reid produced 15 points off the bench for Minnesota, which lost its third straight contest. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 13 points and three steals and Rudy Gobert added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Timberwolves.
The Trail Blazers made 45.2 percent of their shots, including 9 of 25 (36 percent) from 3-point range.
Minnesota shot just 39.4 percent from the field and was a wobbly 7 of 39 (17.9 percent) from 3-point range.
Portland scored 13 consecutive points in the fourth quarter to open up an 89-78 advantage. Sharpe capped the burst by sinking two free throws with 6:39 remaining.
Minnesota moved within 96-92 on Gobert's three-point play with 1:48 left, but Sharpe answered with a 3-pointer 10 seconds later.
Edwards later made a layup to bring Minnesota with 101-96 with one minute left. However, Sharpe made two free throws and Banton converted a three-point play to push the margin to 10 with 16.5 seconds left to put it away.
Minnesota looked motivated to avenge the Tuesday loss when it jumped out to early leads of 11-2 and 16-4. The Timberwolves led 33-23 at the end of the quarter.
The Trail Blazers moved ahead for the first time at 44-42 on Camara's putback with 2:38 remaining in the half.
The score was tied at 48 at the break. Sharpe had 14 points for Portland and Edwards had 10 for the Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves used a 12-2 burst to take a 70-63 lead with 3:45 left in the third quarter. But Portland finished the period strong and tied the score at 76 on Banton's 3-pointer with 35.3 seconds remaining.
