Short-handed Clippers can’t outlast Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves

INGLEWOOD — Kris Dunn stood on the sideline, his hands on his knees, digging deep for a final burst of energy that might lift the Clippers to a victory.

But the 6-foot-3 shooting guard didn’t have anything left after carrying his team for more than 47 minutes only to watch Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards score the game’s final five points to seal a 94-88 victory on Thursday night at the Intuit Dome.

“Tough loss,” said Dunn, who had 11 points, six rebounds, seven assists and one steal. “I mean, I feel like as a team, we played well, honestly. Especially the young guys in the second group, I thought everybody did their job. Just credit to Minnesota. I think they just made a couple more plays down the stretch.”

Dunn finds himself in the difficult position of having to handle the ball, score and play defense as the team adjusts to new players and the absence of others. He said juggling all of that is a tough assignment, but it’s what the team needs at the moment.

“Like I said before, I’m just trying to be a connector on the team,” Dunn said. “Whatever the coach of staff asks me to do, I just try to do it. If that’s to be on the ball, be off the ball, that’s just locking somebody up. I just try to do what I can do.”

With John Collins joining Kawhi Leonard on the bench on Thursday night, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was desperate for help, especially on offense. The two starters account for a combined 41.8 points per game, and they were given another day to rest their respective injuries.

Leonard was held out of Thursday’s game because of a sore ankle and Collins because of the head injury he suffered in a game against the Lakers six days ago.

So, Lue started by looking to Bennedict Mathurin to fill that void in the starting lineup. In a short time, Mathurin has established himself as a reliable offensive piece off the bench, averaging 22 points and 6.2 rebounds.

“We need him. We need him to score the basketball,” Lue said before the game. “We need him to be aggressive in making plays, and with Kawhi and JC both being out, we need offense on the floor.”

The Clippers, it turned out, needed more than Mathurin if they had any chance of stopping the Timberwolves, who won for 10th time in 14 games and boast the NBA’s third-ranked scoring offense at 119.6 points per game.

While the Clippers (27-31) received scoring from unlikely corners of their roster and delivered a healthy dose of defense while building a lead through three quarters, it wasn’t enough to hold off Edwards (31 points) and the Timberwolves (37-23) in the final minutes.

“Our guys, they’re going to play hard, they’re going to compete and put you in a position to win the game,” Lue said. “I thought every guy that played tonight, all 10 guys did that. And that’s kind of been the last three games – just be able to play hard, compete.”

The game was never out of reach for the Clippers despite playing without Leonard, Collins and newcomer Darius Garland, but it came down to a series of makes and misses for both sides, and they committed six of their 19 turnovers in the fourth quarter on their way to a third consecutive loss.

Trailing 85-82 with 3:36 left, Derrick Jones Jr. intercepted a Minnesota pass, but the Clippers were called for a shot clock violation. Jones followed with a running layup to close the gap to 85-84 with 2:24 remaining.

Mathurin followed a pair of free throws by Edwards with a basket to get the Clippers within 87-86. The teams continued to exchange baskets, before the combination of a clutch Edwards shot followed by another Clipper turnover decided things.

Edwards, who was returning to the site of the NBA All-Star Game, where he was selected the MVP, sealed the victory with a step-back 3-pointer over two defenders for a 92-88 lead with 42.9 seconds left.

The Clippers turned it over on the ensuing inbounds pass, and the Timberwolves extended that possession with a pair of offensive rebounds before Edwards made two more free throws with 12.1 seconds left.

Jones led the Clippers with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while Mathurin finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

The game turned chippy when Dunn got into a scuffle with Jaden McDaniels less than two minutes into the third quarter, resulting in Dunn getting slapped with a technical foul and McDaniels a flagrant 1 foul.

Dunn’s temper flared in the first half when he thought he was fouled while shooting, but the call was ruled a non-shooting foul.

Both instances seemed to ignite Dunn, who scored, assisted on another basket and came up with a steal over the next two minutes, capped by a dunk by Jones off an assist from Dunn, to give the Clippers a 52-50 lead at the 7:19 mark of the third.

The Clippers stretched their lead to 62-56 on a pair of free throws by Bogdan Bogdanovic, who saw his first minutes in nearly a month.

The hosts maintained their momentum and took a 68-63 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Clippers managed to keep the score close in the first half, despite a lack of offense from veterans Nicolas Batum, who started in place of Collins, and Brook Lopez – and nine turnovers. The entire team struggled to land a 3-point shot, missing their first 11 attempts from behind the arc before Bogdanovic buried one with one second left in the first half to pull the Clippers within 44-38 at the intermission.

Lue said if the team had any shot of limiting Edwards and the rest of the Timberwolves, they had to play hard, especially on the defensive side. Edwards has been on a tear since All-Star Weekend, averaging 34 points over his past three games, including a 34-point performance on Tuesday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

The four-time All-Star shot 12 for 24 from the field (2 for 6 from 3-point range) to go with five assists. Donte DiVincenzo added 18 points, while Jaden McDaniels and Ayo Dosunmu each scored 12 points. Naz Reid finished with 11 points, and Rudy Gobert grabbed 13 rebounds.

Jones credited the Clippers defense and their focus on offense for keeping the game close.

“On the offensive end, we were locked in.” Jones said. “We were just moving around, just trying to keep motion in our offense and trying to make them read every aspect of our offense and not just having them load in on one player and just sitting there. But it’s tough. It’s tough to play like that for a full 48 minutes.”