Sports
Timberwolves erase 25-point deficit to defeat Thunder 131-128 in overtime
The Minnesota Timberwolves completed a fearless comeback win for the ages Monday night.
Minnesota erased a 25-point third-quarter deficit against the Western Conference’s top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (46-11) to pick up a 131-128 overtime road victory at Paycom Center.
With the win the Wolves (32-27) snap a two-game skid and, more importantly, inch closer to the LA Clippers for the sixth spot in the Western Conference standings.
With just under 20 seconds remaining in the overtime period, Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attacked the rim, where he was met by Minnesota star Anthony Edwards, who swatted Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot with 13 seconds remaining.
The Timberwolves’ Terrence Shannon Jr. recovered the loose ball en route to a Minnesota timeout with 10.4 seconds left. Following two made free throws by Naz Reid to put the Wolves ahead by 3, Gilgeous-Alexander hoisted a contested off-the-dribble 3-pointer to tie it, but the miss completed an epic comeback for Minnesota.
ANT BLOCKS SGA’S GAME-WINNER ATTEMPT 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Ap8SEet4VJ
— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 25, 2025
With just under four minutes to go, Jalen Williams converted a layup to give the Thunder a 16-point margin and what appeared to be enough to seal another victory. The Timberwolves had other ideas.
Williams’ field goal was the last Oklahoma City would make in regulation, and the Wolves caught just enough fire to spark a comeback in the waning minutes of regulation — all without Edwards. Inside the final minute of the fourth quarter, Jaden McDaniels converted an and-1 layup over Thunder guard Alex Caruso, tying the game with 12 seconds left. On the ensuing possession, Nickeil Alexander-Walker missed a game-winning floater attempt at the buzzer, leading to overtime.
McDaniels led Minnesota with 27 points, 10 rebounds and four assists and Reid added 22 points and 11 rebounds. Edwards finished with a near triple-double, contributing 17 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists to round out three starters finishing in double-figures. Alexander-Walker added 21 points and five rebounds while Shannon Jr. tallied a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double off the bench.
Gilgeous-Alexander also neared a triple-double with a 39-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist effort on an efficient 11-of-20 shooting from the field. Williams had 27 points and Aaron Wiggins finished with 19 points and seven rebounds in the loss.
What this means for Timberwolves
Minnesota has been one of the worst clutch teams in the league this season. The Wolves have lost 21 games in clutch time, defined as within five points in the final five minutes. This game looked like it was getting nowhere near clutch time until an unheralded group rallied them.
With Edwards on the sideline with a sore calf, coach Chris Finch said he nearly pulled the plug when they were down 19 points with 6:28 to play. But Shannon Jr. converted a three-point play and another layup to cut it to 12 with just under five minutes to play.
“When we got it down to 12, I thought we had a chance,” Finch said. “I wouldn’t have necessarily put money on us winning, but I thought at that point we had a chance.”
This was the largest fourth-quarter deficit overcome in franchise history, per Elias. Minnesota also is just the second team since 2002-03 to come back to win a game after trailing by at least 16 points with 3:45 to go, per Wolves PR. The only other team to do it? The Sacramento Kings did it against Minnesota in 2020.
Finch stuck with a five that included Shannon Jr., Rob Dillingham, Alexander-Walker, McDaniels and Reid, and that group rallied to force overtime. The Wolves also were missing starters Julius Randle (groin), Donte DiVincenzo (toe) and Rudy Gobert (back), but Minnesota found a way to push through for what could be a season-defining win.
This season has been disjointed as the Wolves have tried to move on from Karl-Anthony Towns. But one thing this team has never done is give up. There is a fiber to them that merits seeing this thing through. After losing to Houston and Oklahoma City in close games coming out of the break, the Wolves needed this one to show their fans that it’s not time to give up just yet.
“We kept fighting. The team fights. It always has,” Finch said. “We don’t always play the prettiest basketball, but it’s been fighting for a long, long time.” — Jon Krawczynski, senior writer
Finch’s moves finally paid off
Finch has come under criticism from some Wolves fans with the team struggling to regain the form it had last season on the way to the Western Conference finals. He has not always been able to find the right lineup combinations. He also owns part of the team’s clutch time woes.
But Finch made several huge decisions in the fourth quarter to help win this one. First, the Wolves started to blitz Gilgeous-Alexander to force the ball out of his hands early in the possession. They had deployed a similar strategy in their previous two wins over the Thunder, but Finch said he didn’t want to use the same approach at the start of this game because he figured OKC would be ready for it.
He finally went to it in the fourth, flustering the Thunder. Gilgeous-Alexander had only nine points on 3-of-6 shooting in the fourth quarter and overtime. His teammates only scored 17 points during that time, allowing the Wolves to roar back.
Finch also decided to keep Edwards on the bench for much of the comeback. The Wolves star had struggled shooting in the game, including missing four free throws. Edwards used a therapeutic massager on his calf throughout the fourth quarter and felt good enough to get in for the final few minutes in overtime when he had that enormous block.
Like he rarely has this season, Finch rode the young players and it paid off for him in a big win. — Krawczynski.
McDaniels shines while offense struggles
While the rest of his team couldn’t buy a bucket for most of the night, McDaniels carried the offense. He showed more playmaking chops than he ever has.
Edwards and Reid couldn’t find their shooting touch, so McDaniels put it all on his slim shoulders. He made 9 of 16 shots and all nine free throws.
“I saw growth,” Reid said. “I was struggling, Ant was struggling. He was the only one getting to his spots, making shots and rebounding.”
McDaniels is often the fourth or fifth option on offense when the Wolves are fully healthy, but he is showing he is capable of much more. — Krawczynski
Required reading
(Photo: William Purnell / Getty Images)
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Shedeur Sanders was not the only person in Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders’ household to have a significant fall during the NFL Draft over the weekend.
Shilo Sanders, the defensive back who also played for the Colorado Buffaloes, failed to be selected at all. He was a bit of a long shot to be drafted, and experts predicted he would become an undrafted free agent once the event wrapped up on Saturday.
Colorado Buffaloes safety Shilo Sanders (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
Sanders did find a time after the seven rounds finished. He signed a deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and will now embark on a quest to make the 53-man roster before summer is over.
He said on Saturday afternoon that he needed to fire his father as his agent.
“Dad was our agent, but that hasn’t been working out too good,” he said during a Twitch livestream. “So today I had to sign with an agent. So, we’re going to see what happens.”
SHEDEUR SANDERS PRANK CALL CONTROVERSY YIELDS STUNNING DEVELOPMENT
Colorado Buffaloes safety Shilo Sanders (Dylan Widger-Imagn Images)
Sanders transferred to Colorado once his father took over as the head coach of the Buffaloes. He initially went to South Carolina.
He played in 21 games for Colorado between the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He had 137 tackles, one interception and one sack during his career. The lone interception was returned for a touchdown.
Sanders making the roster will be a tough journey.
Colorado Buffaloes safety Shilo Sanders (Troy Taormina-Imagn Images)
Tampa Bay selected cornerbacks Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish in the draft. The team already has Zyon McCollum, Jamel Dean, Josh Hayes, Tyreek Funderburk and Bryce Hall as corners; Antoine Winfield Jr., Christian Izien, Kaevon Merriweather and Marcus Banks are listed as safeties.
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Typically, Kawhi Leonard said after Game 4 Saturday at Intuit Dome, the four and five seeds in NBA playoff matchups are equal in many ways.
That appears to very much be the case in the fifth-seeded Clippers’ first-round series against the fourth-seeded Denver Nuggets.
They have each won two games, with Game 5 scheduled for Tuesday night in Denver.
They had identical 50-32 records and split the four games they played against each other in the regular season.
“It’s like another four, five seeding series,” Leonard said. “You usually get some tough battles in these seedings. You guys watched the ending of the last two weeks, three weeks of the season and everybody was fighting. I think we pretty much have the same record. So, that’s how it is. The matchups might be different, different styles of play, but both teams are fighting to win.”
Three of the four games have come down to the final seconds. The Clippers lost Game 1 in overtime by two points. The Clippers won Game 2 on the road by three points. The Clippers blew out the Nuggets in Game 3 by 37 points. In Game 4, Aaron Gordon tipped in a Nikola Jokic missed three-pointer with a power dunk just before time expired to give Denver a two-point win.
The latest loss was emotionally draining for the Clippers after their rally from a 22-point deficit fell just short.
“Just bounce back,” Norman Powell said. “We know what time it is. We’ve all said it — that’s a good team over there. They’ve won a championship. They know what it takes. They got the will, they got the guys, they are not going to quit. It’s just us going back to the drawing board and seeing how we can improve.”
All five of Denver’s starters played at least 42 minutes in Game 4. But they got two days off to recover.
And the Nuggets have Jokic — he’s averaging a triple-double in the series with 28.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 10.8 assists.
“We’re going back to Denver, so I think now it’s best-of-three and the series is even and it’s completely different, I would think,” Jokic said.
The Clippers are leaning on their four top players to guide them and their formidable defense.
Leonard leads in scoring (26.5 points per game), followed by James Harden (21.3), Ivica Zubac (18.8) and Powell (16.8). Zubac leads the Clippers in rebounding (11.5 per game), Harden leads in assists (9.5), Leonard leads in steals (1.8) and veteran Nicholas Batum leads in blocks (1.2).
The Clippers are holding the Nuggets to 99.5 points per game in the series, the fifth-best defense in the postseason.
“We feel good that we can beat this team,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
Sports
Switzerland fencing team turns away from Team Israel on medal podium at European championships
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The European Fencing Championship featured a controversial protest against Team Israel in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday night.
Members of Switzerland’s silver medal-winning under-23 fencing team turned their backs to the Israeli gold medalists during the medal ceremony while Israel’s national anthem played.
Israeli defeated Switzerland 45–34 to win gold.
Saber fencing gear during the USA Fencing Division I National Championships at the Greater Richmond Convention Center April 11, 2016, in Richmond, Va. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
After the incident, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned Switzerland for the protest.
Israel’s fencing team has faced previous protests by opponents in recent years.
Iraq’s national fencing team withdrew from a match against Israel at the World Fencing Championship in Istanbul in May 2023.
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FIFA’s disciplinary committee was asked to look into allegations of discrimination against Team Israel and even had to consider a suspension after it was requested by the Palestinian soccer federation, the PFA. The PFA specifically accused the Israeli federation IFA of being complicit in violations of international law by the Israeli government, discrimination against Arab players and inclusion in its league of clubs located in Palestinian territory.
FIFA did not suspend Israel, and the IFA later lambasted the PFA over the accusations in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
A Georgia middle school teacher was arrested after allegedly threatening to cut off the head of a Muslim student who confronted him about an Israeli flag in his classroom. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“Whoever fantasized about the suspension of Israeli football from the international arena or sanctions through lies and false accusations has suffered a defeat,” the statement said. “Again, we have acted over time in different channels, in a calculated and proactive manner in the face of the challenge of the Palestinian Association and its leader to distort reality, and the result today leaves no room for doubt.
“We respect the authors of the report submitted to the council members and the decision of the council members to consider transferring two issues to a legal examination, as long as there is any factual justification for it. Thanks to values that represent a glorious democracy and an independent and determined legal system of the Football Association, we have never violated and will not violate any of the FIFA/UEFA rules.”
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