Dosunmu and Ball Keep the Wolves Rolling as Minnesota Runs Its Win Streak to Four Past the Jazz

The Minnesota Timberwolves keep finding ways to win without their best player, and on Sunday night at Target Center the formula looked familiar: Ayo Dosunmu and LaMelo Ball doing the scoring, Rudy Gobert owning the glass, and a bench that tilted the game when it mattered.

Dosunmu finished with 26 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including 4 of 5 from three-point range, and Ball added 24 points and five assists as Minnesota pulled away from the Utah Jazz for a 115-100 victory. It was the Timberwolves' fourth win in a row and pushed them to 8-3 on the young season, a record built almost entirely in Anthony Edwards' absence. The star guard is expected to miss around two months after knee surgery on October 29, and Minnesota is now 5-2 without him.

For a while, Utah made a game of it. The Jazz tied the score at 63 early in the third quarter, and for a team that had lost seven straight coming in, there was a flicker of belief. Then Minnesota answered with seven unanswered points, and the Jazz never led again. The Wolves closed the third quarter on a 12-4 run to take a 90-78 lead into the fourth, and the margin never really dipped below double digits after that.

What stood out most was not the starters but the group behind them. All five members of Minnesota's second unit finished at least plus-11, and it was that group that finally created the separation late in the third. Trey Lyles played 21 minutes, scored nine points and finished plus-29. It was the kind of quiet, unglamorous contribution that rarely makes a highlight reel but wins games in November.

Jaden McDaniels chipped in 16 points, and Gobert posted a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds, going a perfect 4-for-4 from the field. Minnesota shot 49.4 percent from the floor and made 12 of 32 three-pointers. Perhaps most surprising of all, the Wolves went 27 of 32 from the free-throw line after entering the night with the worst free-throw percentage in the NBA at 64.8 percent.

Utah, meanwhile, keeps sinking. The Jazz fell to 1-9, the worst record in the Western Conference, and lost their eighth game in a row. There was at least one bright spot: rookie Darryn Peterson, the No. 2 overall pick, scored a career-high 26 points on 11-for-21 shooting, with six rebounds. Utah was without Lauri Markkanen, who sat out with a right wrist injury after making eight three-pointers in Friday's loss at Dallas.

Sunday's game also opened something unusual for Minnesota: a franchise-record eight-game homestand. The Wolves will not play another road game until November 25 in Oklahoma City. They host Dallas on Thursday, while Utah returns home to face Miami on Tuesday.

The Edwards absence was supposed to be the story of Minnesota's autumn. Instead, the Wolves have turned it into a showcase for their depth. Four straight wins, a top-three record in the West, and a bench that is starting to believe in itself. If Edwards comes back to a team playing like this, the Timberwolves will not just have survived his absence. They will have grown through it.