Wolves turn a test into a rout, rolling to victory over Jazz

“We don’t have that luxury,” Finch said. “We had that early in the season when we were trying to figure out a lot more things.”

There wasn’t much to complain about with Thursday’s performance. The Wolves faced the worst team in the West, Utah, and were down three rotation players for most of the night — Mike Conley, Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. With Finch going deep into his bench, the Wolves still handled the Jazz with ease, 138-113, for their fifth consecutive victory.

Rob Dillingham had 19 points and eight assists, Luka Garza had 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting while defensive specialist Jaylen Clark had six points and was a plus-34 in 17 minutes.

“Our bench was fantastic,” Finch said. “At halftime‚ we didn’t have a starter that was a net positive, and yet our bench was huge.”

Slow start

A night after beating Phoenix in an emotional game, the Wolves came out flat in the first quarter and fell behind 25-10. They conceded a number of open looks to the Jazz on the perimeter, and Utah converted to the tune of 5-for-10 from three-point range. Offensively, the Wolves had little movement and were cold to start. This wouldn’t last. As Utah got into its bench, Edwards got going. He attacked the rim on two consecutive possessions when Jazz center Walker Kessler went to the bench. Then as Utah sent double-teams his way, he passed out of them for five assists in the quarter. The Wolves cut the Jazz lead to 31-27 by the end of the quarter.

Randle exits in second

Randle exited the game in the second quarter after converting a layup around Kessler. Randle immediately grabbed at his right inner thigh and went straight to the locker room. The team then announced he was out because of right groin soreness.

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