Timberwolves rout Clippers 127-101 for first win without Anthony Edwards

The Minnesota Timberwolves won for the first time without Anthony Edwards on Friday night. They beat the LA Clippers 127-101 at Target Center in their NBA Cup group opener and stopped a two-game slide that started the night Edwards' knee problem came back.

The Associated Press, via Yahoo Sports, reported that LaMelo Ball scored a season-high 24 points and Jaden McDaniels added 23 on 11-of-15 shooting, with seven assists and six rebounds. Bones Hyland had 19 points and eight assists off the bench. Minnesota put up 34 points in the first quarter and never trailed by much after that, according to ESPN's game coverage. A 20-2 run in the fourth quarter, with three 3-pointers from Ball, put the game away. All four Minnesota wins this season have come by more than 20 points.

The win matters because of what came before it. Edwards needed arthroscopic knee surgery after a new exam that followed the 127-125 overtime loss at Cleveland, according to the AP. The same wear-and-tear injury held him to a career-low 61 regular-season games in 2025-26. Minnesota looked out of sorts in Wednesday's 119-114 home loss to Golden State, its first game without him. The Star Tribune reported that Edwards sent the team a video message before Friday's game. That leaves the Wolves 1-1 without him and 4-2 overall.

The defense showed what the rotation can look like without him. Backup guard Jaylen Clark took some of the work on Darius Garland away from McDaniels and finished plus-23 in 17 minutes with two steals. Garland scored 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting but committed five turnovers. The Clippers fell to 1-4 and have lost four straight.

What it means for San Antonio

The schedule moves fast. Minnesota plays at the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, the second night of a back-to-back, and NBA.com lists a trip to Houston on Nov. 4 after a home game against Milwaukee. The Wolves are 2-0 on the road against the Eastern Conference this season, with 20-plus-point wins at Miami and Orlando. Their only road loss came in overtime at Cleveland. San Antonio is a different kind of test, and Minnesota will go in without its leading scorer.

The market treats Saturday as a mismatch. The Spurs are heavy favorites at -506 on Novig, and the best price on that side across the 12 venues on our board is Pinnacle's -503, a gap of only 3 cents. Minnesota is +488 on Novig. The spread shows the same thing. Novig has the Spurs at -12.5 at +104 and the Wolves at +12.5 at -108, while BetRivers has the best Wolves price at -105 on the same number. FanDuel has the Spurs at -11.5 at -115, a full point lower than most of the market. The total is 226.5 on Novig, and Hard Rock Bet has the best under at 227.5. Sportsbook hold on the moneyline runs from 3.2% to 5.7%.

A 26-point win over a short-handed Clippers team won't change much in that number. What it does show is that Ball, McDaniels and Hyland can carry the offense for a night. The question is whether they can do it again less than 24 hours later.

Full prices are on the Timberwolves at Spurs odds page, and the season so far is on our Timberwolves team page.