Portland Trail Blazers forward Maurice Harkless (4) grabs a rebound ball away from Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, right, in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, April 3, 2017, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Stacy Bengs)
MINNEAPOLIS — As Karl-Anthony Towns powered through Portland’s smaller frontcourt, the Trail Blazers found out just how much they’re going to miss big man Jusuf Nurkic down the stretch.
Towns had 34 points and 12 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves snapped Portland’s six-game winning streak with a 110-109 victory over the Trail Blazers on Monday night.
It was the second game for Portland without Nurkic, who galvanized the team after coming over in a trade from Denver at the deadline.
He will miss at least the rest of the NBA regular season with a fractured right leg, leaving the Blazers to battle big frontcourts in San Antonio, Utah and one more time against Minnesota without him and just a 1½-game cushion on Denver for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.
“There’s a lot of good bigs out there and we’re thin right now. We’ve got Meyers (Leonard) and (Al-Farouq Aminu), who’s not really a five,” C.J. McCollum said. “So we’re in a tough position, but it’s not an excuse. We’ve got to go out there and play and make the best of it.”
Damian Lillard scored 25 points but made just 7 of 21 shots, including 3 of 11 3-pointers. His potential game-winning pull-up jumper at the buzzer glanced off the rim.
Andrew Wiggins scored 29 points and Ricky Rubio had 11 points, 16 assists and seven rebounds for the Timberwolves, who bounced back from an ugly home loss to Sacramento that eliminated them from postseason contention on Saturday.
“They’re playing small, we have a big who can guard smalls and play like a big at the other end,” Rubio said of Towns. “That’s big for us.”
Aminu scored 20 points and Maurice Harkless had 17 points, eight rebounds and a big block of a Rubio drive that gave the Blazers the ball back with 4.9 seconds to play.
Lillard got a clean look, but couldn’t knock it down and Portland missed a golden chance to pad its lead on Denver in a tense race.
The Blazers beat lowly Phoenix in their first game without Nurkic and went super-small on Monday against the Wolves with Aminu and Harkless seeing some time at center.
The sleek lineup put the Blazers in control with a 34-point second quarter, but the 7-foot (2.13-meters) Towns had his way in the fourth. He scored 14 points in the period, including a big dunk for a 110-106 lead with 35 seconds to go.
“We just had a hard time,” Lillard said. “Guys competed hard on him. We made it as hard as we could on him, but he’s very good and he’s going to score points. That’s what happened.”