Edwards Scores 26, Barnes Scores 0: Timberwolves Rout Raptors 117–94 for a Historic 3–0 Start

MINNEAPOLIS

The box score tells two stories, and both of them are hard to believe. At the top: Anthony Edwards, 26 points on 10-for-18 shooting, the best player on the floor in a 117–94 Minnesota win. Near the bottom, in the Toronto column: Scottie Barnes, 28 minutes, 0-for-12 from the field, 0-for-5 from three — zero points.

Barnes did not score. Not a quiet night, not a foul-trouble night — 28 full minutes as a starter, 12 shots, none of them in. It is the second scoreless game of his six-year career, and the first since April 4, 2023, according to ESPN’s game page. His team lost by 23 anyway, because the team across from him is doing something almost nobody has ever done: through three games, Minnesota has won by 25, by 22 and now by 23. As Yardbarker noted, the 1962-63 Boston Celtics and the 2004-05 Utah Jazz are the only other teams in NBA history to open a season with three straight wins by 20 or more.

The third quarter ended it

For a half, Toronto hung around on effort and Minnesota turnovers — the Wolves coughed it up 24 times and still led 55–47 at the break behind Edwards and a bench that would not stop scoring.

Then the third quarter happened: 35–15. As Field Level Media reported, Minnesota opened the half on a 22–6 run, and the Raptors — playing without Kawhi Leonard and getting nothing from their other star — had no answer for any of it. By the time the quarter ended it was 90–62, and the fourth was a formality.

Edwards did his damage efficiently and sat early: 26 points on 10-for-18 in just 28 minutes, per ESPN’s box score. LaMelo Ball, in his first home game as a Timberwolf, put up 15 points and eight assists in only 17 foul-limited minutes and finished plus-33 — Minnesota outscored Toronto by 33 while he was on the floor. Jaden McDaniels added 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks, Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 15 off the bench, Jonathan Kuminga added 13, and Rudy Gobert owned the glass with 13 rebounds. Minnesota shot 56 percent from the field and 48 percent from three, and won the rebounding battle 49–34.

Toronto’s night started badly and never turned

The Raptors lost this one before it tipped. Leonard, their leading scorer through a 2–0 start, was scratched about an hour before the game with swelling in his left knee — a brutal break the Associated Press reported pregame. Ja’Kobe Walter started in his place and was Toronto’s best player, scoring a team-high 22 points. RJ Barrett added 20 and Immanuel Quickley 19, but with Barnes scoreless on 12 shots the math never worked: Toronto shot 39 percent and watched Minnesota run away in the third.

One honest blemish for Minnesota: 24 turnovers is a lot for a team winning by 23, and against a full-strength opponent it would have mattered. It did not matter Sunday, because the Wolves’ shooting (56/48) and rebounding (+15) buried every mistake.

What it means

The margins are the story now. Twenty-five, 22, 23 — three games, three blowouts, a start matched by exactly two teams in league history, and one of them (the ’63 Celtics) won the title. It is three games; nobody is engraving anything. But Minnesota has done it with balance — a different player leading the break every night, a top-five pick (Ball) running the second unit into the ground, a defense that just held a 30-point scorer to zero. The Wolves look less like a hot team and more like a deep one.

Toronto falls to 2–1 and goes home to face Orlando on Wednesday, hoping Leonard’s knee is a one-night thing. Minnesota, 3–0, is in Cleveland on Monday night for its first back-to-back — the first real test of whether this travels.

Elsewhere Tonight

• Los Angeles Lakers 132, Utah Jazz 123 — Luka Dončić scored 52 points with 10 assists and eight rebounds — his 10th career 50-point game, the first 50-point game of the new season, and he became the fastest Laker ever to 3,000 points (95 games) as Los Angeles rallied from 18 down to move to 3–0.
• Oklahoma City Thunder 108, Los Angeles Clippers 101 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 and Oklahoma City improved to 3–0 — but Jalen Williams was stretchered off late with a left leg injury after an awkward landing, and there is no diagnosis yet.
• Memphis Grizzlies 123, Sacramento Kings 112
• Detroit Pistons 106, Philadelphia 76ers 93
• Orlando Magic 111, New York Knicks 102
• Indiana Pacers 136, Brooklyn Nets 109

Full box score, linescore and play-by-play: Timberwolves 117, Raptors 94 — Game Center. More: NBA · Stats Hub