'Every Game Matters': Trail Blazers Grind Out Win Over Timberwolves as Play-In Chase Intensifies

📍MINNEAPOLIS — These are the kinds of games the Trail Blazers have to win if their postseason aspirations are real.

That's something we've said after many recent losses, especially ones where they blew leads against good teams, like they did earlier this month in Houston.

Now, finally, they can say that after a win. Friday night's 108-104 victory over the Timberwolves cemented a winning record on this five-game road trip, the first of their three extended trips they can say that about. It was their first win against a team above the play-in since they beat the Luka Doncic-less Lakers in mid-January, and their first such win on the road since the Jan. 3 victory in San Antonio.

More than that, they managed on Friday to overcome some of the pitfalls that have plagued them of late.

This time, when they let the Timberwolves claw back from an 18-point deficit, they didn't fold. When they turned the ball over six times in the third quarter after turning it over six times in the whole first half, they didn't let the mistakes snowball and lose composure.

This time, they executed.

Jerami Grant scored the final eight points of the game for the Blazers, knocking down two three-pointers and making two free throws—another season-long issue—to keep Minnesota out of reach.

"Definitely one of our better wins, if not our best win on this trip so far," Grant said. "Playing against a good team, the resilience down the stretch, not necessarily being up a ton of points throughout the game. We came through at the end."