Two nights after their most embarrassing loss of the season — a home loss to Charlotte — Minnesota again faced incompetent opposition Wednesday in Washington.

While the Timberwolves were again uninspiring, they did at least emerge with a 118-107 victory over the hapless Wizards.

Washington (7-36) has lost 11 of its past 12 games.

Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 38 points, taking 28 shots after he was largely a bystander in the Wolves’ loss to Charlotte. Edwards went just 11 for 28 from the field but did make 13 free throws. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 27 points. The Wolves shot just 42 percent from the field.

“It seemed like the lid was on the rim, but we did a good job just keep fighting, keep shooting, stay confident,” Towns said in his postgame on-court interview. “I thought we did a good job of finding different ways to score. The 3-ball wasn’t falling for us today, free throws let us down a little bit, but kept attacking and found a different way.”

Rudy Gobert was Minnesota’s most dominant player. He tallied 19 points and 16 boards. Seven of those rebounds were on the offensive glass, as Gobert spearheaded the second-chance effort that ultimately carried Minnesota to victory.

Fifteen offensive boards for the Wolves resulted in 19 second-chance points. Minnesota (31-13) also committed just seven turnovers to Washington’s 21.

“We were like plus-23 in the possession game with our offensive rebounds, which we wanted to do. We set out to do that,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “Rudy was a monster on the offensive glass.”

Minnesota ran into the right opponent Wednesday. But the contest was another example of how sorely the team misses Mike Conley. The floor general missed his second straight game, but this absence was due to illness.

Without Conley, the Wolves again weren’t sharp. They allowed Washington to shoot 48 percent from the field and 42 percent from deep. Deni Avdija led the Wizards with 24 points.

Washington led 59-57 at the break, but Minnesota held the Wizards to 7-for-19 shooting in the third frame to regain control.

“We upped the ball pressure in the second half, which was key,” Finch said. “The third quarter looked a lot more like us defensively. I’m proud of the guys for that.”

Minnesota will need a better performance even to beat Brooklyn on Thursday in the second half of its back-to–back. Perhaps Conley will be back for that bout, which would serve as a much-needed boost to a currently struggling outfit.

But, as Towns noted postgame, he was touting a smile that wasn’t present after Wednesday’s defeat. Because even if the team doesn’t play up to its potential, victories still feel far sweeter than defeats.

The more of those Minnesota can rack up while attempting to regain its identity, the better position it will find itself in come April.

BRIEFLY

The last-two minute report from Monday’s 128-125 loss to Charlotte revealed 10 missed calls down the stretch, per the NBA. That included a pair of uncalled fouls by Charlotte on Towns’ final rim attack that could’ve potentially put the Wolves back in front. While six of the missed calls favored Charlotte, another critical miss occurred on a LaMelo Ball drive with 48 seconds left, where Kyle Anderson got away with a foul.