Wembanyama, Spurs outlast Edwards despite 55-point barrage - ESPN

SAN ANTONIO — Déjà vu crept in, but Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs had other plans Saturday, overcoming a career-high 55-point performance from Anthony Edwards to hold on for a 126-123 win over Minnesota.

Wembanyama scored a team-high 39 points for the Spurs in a contest that featured the stars combining for 94 points, the most by opposing former No. 1 picks in the modern draft era (1966), according to ESPN Research.

«It was fun,» Wembanyama said. «Not the most fun, but it was a fun game for sure. And this one is worth a lot because of the way the West looks right now.»

Six days ago at the Target Center in Minneapolis, the Spurs took a 16-0 lead and led by as many as 19 points before losing on a go-ahead runner off the glass by Edwards with 16.8 seconds remaining. Edwards almost played the spoiler role again at Frost Bank Center.

The 24-year-old scored 26 points in the fourth quarter, the second-highest scoring output in any quarter by a Timberwolves player in the play-by-play era (1997-98), according to ESPN Research.

Edwards' 55-point night ranks as the most points this season by a player in a loss.

«They've got Wemby,» Edwards said. «He's supposed to be the face of the league. So, I've always got to get up for that one. I loved it. I wish we could have just moved everybody out the way and just checked up — me versus him.»

The third matchup between the teams sort of played out that way down the stretch. Wembanyama and Edwards traded baskets twice in the last three minutes, after the Minnesota guard rallied his team from a 25-point deficit.

«This team has done this to [us] enough times that everyone remembers and can expect the adjustment or the uptick in what we are about to see, and that's what happened,»