Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards, a marketing face in the NBA Race for the Cup, will take another run at it Friday.
Two Cup contenders will continue to battle for a spot in the knockout phase when the Timberwolves (10-5, 2-0) visit the Phoenix Suns (9-6, 1-0). They are among nine remaining unbeaten teams entering the fourth weekend of Cup play — and two of three in the West Group A.
“I still don’t understand the rules,” Edwards told ESPN before the six-week event began on Nov. 7.
“I really don’t care, but I think just winning the games means more than anything.”
It has worked so far. Edwards has scored 67 points in Cup victories over Utah and Sacramento, and another win would give the Wolves a good chance to become one of the four Western Conference teams to make the quarterfinals.
The top team in each of the three conference groups automatically advances to the quarterfinals, and the runner-up in each conference also moves on. Two 3-1 runners-up advanced last season while two did not.
The Wolves will play their first road game in the four-game round robin Friday before an expected showdown with defending league champion Oklahoma City (15-1, 1-0) on Wednesday. The Thunder face Utah on Friday.
“Julius (Randle) brought us together a couple practices ago and was like, ‘Man, let’s try to win this year,’ ” Edwards said.
Randle had 32 points and 10 rebounds and Naz Reid scored 28 points off the bench when the Wolves tuned up with a 120-109 victory over Washington on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Each team has won eight of its last 10 games, the Wolves’ losses coming against Denver and New York.
The Suns were 10 seconds away from posting a 9-1 record in their last 10. They squandered a 22-point fourth-quarter lead in a 124-122 loss to Atlanta in their most recent home game Sunday, but they recovered with a 127-110 win in Portland on Tuesday.
Devin Booker and surprising contributor Collin Gillespie had 19 points apiece to lead six Suns’ double-figure scorers against the Blazers. To go with his season-high in points, Gillespie added six assists and one of the team’s 19 steals that led to 29 transition points.
Gillespie, the only true point guard on the roster, has become an integral part of the rotation while the Suns play without Jalen Green (hamstring).
Gillespie averages 10.5 points and 5.1 assists in 24 minutes per game. He joined LaMelo Ball (2020) and Russell Westbrook (2022) as the only players in NBA history to stack up at least 150 points, 75 assists and 50 rebounds in their first 15 games off the bench in a season.
“Just being disruptive,” Gillespie said of the Suns’ defensive effort at Portland.
Both teams have built their fast starts on relatively easy early-season schedules. The Suns’ strength of schedule was ranked 29th in the league by ESPN entering Thursday’s games, ahead of only Oklahoma City. Minnesota sat 28th.
The Thunder and Suns have the most difficult schedules remaining, according to Tankathon.com.
