ATLANTA – Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards scored 30 points in three quarters in his seasonal visit to his native Atlanta, but it wasn’t nearly enough as his Wolves were blown out by the Hawks 126-102 on Wednesday.
The Hawks, who were playing without All-Star guard Trae Young, ended a seven-game losing streak that included five straight defeats at home by scoring a staggering 64 points in the paint, even though the Wolves had their full-strength lineup available. Minnesota trailed wire to wire and was down 27 points by the late second quarter.
A frustrated Edwards threw a towel up in the air when coach Chris Finch pulled the starters with 7:52 left in the game, and then left the bench area and went back to the Wolves weight room under the State Farm Arena stands. He declined to speak with media after the game.
“Ant’s obviously frustrated with the performance, and rightfully so,” Finch said, “but he needs to stay out on the floor and root for his team.”
It was the second lifeless drubbing in three games for the Wolves, who were also hammered at home 123-107 by the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. Minnesota, which made the West finals in the previous two seasons and hoped to contend again this year, dropped to 21-13 on the season.
“Not like a team that wants to play for the championship,” was center Rudy Gobert’s description of how the Wolves looked. “It didn’t seem like we had any type of energy .. any type of life. … Offensively, it just seems like we were playing an individual sport, and defensively it just feels like there’s not any extra effort. I think the two are connected.”
For Atlanta, the game marked a return for center Kristaps Porziņģis after he missed the prior 10 games due to a recurring illness. He played brilliantly, with 16 points in 17 minutes while shoring up an Atlanta defense that was badly undersized in his absence, and finished a team-best plus-22. Jalen Johnson, who has had an All-Star season for the Hawks, led the way with 34 points on 15-of-22 shooting while adding 10 rebounds and six assists.
Jalen is only the 7th player in NBA history to average a 25-point triple-double in a single month ⭐️ https://t.co/1YqFte4fI3
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) December 31, 2025
Minnesota’s road trip continue with a weekend back-to-back against the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards.
“We have another tough game coming up against another team that plays really, really hard and runs full court,” Finch said. “So, we’ve got to regroup. You just kind of view it as just a tough patch in the middle of a season. I mean, obviously, we’ve got to address the things that we see need to be addressed right now, but there’s a lot of basketball left to be played.”