TORONTO — Pascal Siakam had 27 points and 10 rebounds and the Toronto Raptors extended their season-best home winning streak to seven by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 122-107 on Saturday night.
Jakob Poeltl had 14 points and 11 rebounds and set a career high with his fourth straight double-double to help the Raptors improve to an all-time 24-4 in home games against Minnesota.
Fred VanVleet scored 28 points for Toronto while Gary Trent Jr. added 19, OG Aunoby 15 and Scottie Barnes 10.
Rudy Gobert had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Naz Reid had 22 points for the Timberwolves, who were playing their second game in a row. Minnesota lost in double overtime in Chicago on Friday and didn’t arrive at their Toronto hotel until 5 a.m. Saturday.
“A lot of adversity for us, but we came out and tried to compete to try and win the game,” Gobert said. “Obviously Toronto is a very physical team. They pretty much screwed us up the whole game. In the end we just ran out of fuel.”
Wolves were without guard Anthony Edwards, who retired Friday’s first quarter with a right ankle sprain. Trainer Chris Finch said Edwards is using a hiking boot, adding there is no timetable for his return.
A first-time All-Star this season, Edwards was injured when he landed awkwardly after jumping while throwing a pass.
Jaden McDaniels scored 18 points as the collapsing Wolves lost their third and fifth straight.
“We’ve got to keep our heads up, we’ve got to keep fighting,” Finch said. “We have to stay positive now. That’s all we can do.”
Minnesota lost 18 straight to Toronto. The Timberwolves last won on January 21, 2004 north of the border when Sam Cassell, Kevin Garnett and Latrell Sprewell were the Wolves’ top scorers in a 108–97 win.
Toronto’s only home loss of the series since was a 116-112 loss on Feb. 14, 2021, when the Raptors played in Tampa, Florida due to border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Siakam made just one of six from 3-point range on Saturday but shot 10 to 16 from inside the arc.
“He’s had a couple of games in a row now where we’ve seen a lot of variety in what he’s doing,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse. “To me, that’s his recipe for a good night.”
Toronto led 32-26 after one and 66-58 at halftime.
Reid’s 4-16 shot left in the third gave Minnesota their first lead since the game’s opening minutes, but the Raptors ended the period on an 11-2 run to take a 94-85 lead.
“We didn’t do a good job tonight managing the end of a quarter,” Finch said.
Timberwolves: Mike Conley and Kyle Anderson each scored 12 points. … Minnesota is 15-20 on the way.
Raptors: C Christian Koloko wore a protective face mask after breaking his nose in Thursday’s win over Oklahoma City. … Toronto is 23-13 at home.
Minnesota shot 5 for 23 from 3-point range. McDaniels went 4 to 6 but the rest of the team was 1 to 17.
“We’ve had a lot of really good wide open looks,” said Finch. “We needed those 3s to go in tonight. We played the right game, they didn’t go in.”
Gary Trent Sr. played three minutes off the bench for Minnesota last time they defeated the Raptors in Toronto. His son played 29 minutes off the bench for the Raptors on Saturday.
While attempting to honor Toronto-born Nickeil Alexander-Walker during a second-quarter timeout, the arena PA announcer read a message in which he incorrectly referred to the Minnesota guard as Nickeil Walker-Alexander. The fake name was also briefly shown on the video screen.
Timberwolves: Visit New York on Monday.
Raptors: Visit Milwaukee on Sunday.
