Karl-Anthony Towns scored 34 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves cooled off the red-hot Portland Trail Blazers with a 110-109 NBA victory on Monday.
Portland’s Damian Lillard had a solid look at what would have been a game-winning shot, but his jumper lipped out at the buzzer and the Blazers’ six-game winning streak came to an end.
At 38-39, Portland are clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets.
They play their next three games against playoff-bound teams.
Monday’s contest — the only NBA game of the day — was a makeup game of one that was postponed on March 6 because condensation on the court made it unsafe.
Portland led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter before the Timberwolves stormed back to seize a three-point lead going into the final period.
Towns hit a big one-handed basket with 57.3 seconds remaining to give the Timberwolves a five-point lead.
He capped his night with a two-handed dunk over Al-Farouq Aminu to give Minnesota a 110-106 lead with 35 seconds to play.
A shot from Andrew Wiggins, who scored 29 points for Minnesota, went out of bounds with 4.9 seconds to play to give Portland one last chance.
Lillard, the Western Conference player of the month for March, couldn’t make it.
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