NBA highlights on Feb. 15: T-Wolves begin All-Star break with 4 straight wins

The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Portland Trail Blazers 128-91 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, extending their winning streak to four games before the NBA All-Star break.

The gap in strength between the two teams was nothing but obvious as the Timberwolves led the Western Conference with a 38-16 record, 22.5 games above the Trail Blazers (15-39) in the West's second-last place.

The Timberwolves seemed to have wanted to end the competition quickly, outscoring their opponents 44-14 in the first quarter. The team shot 17-for-25 from the field, made all nine of their shots under the hoop and even got three steals and three blocks. By contrast, the Trail Blazers missed 19 of their field goal (FG) attempts and went 1-for-9 from downtown in this period.

Perhaps such a big lead came too early for the Timberwolves to stay focused on the game. They were slack on both offense and defense in the second quarter, making only seven of their 22 shots to get only 22 points and allowed the Trail Blazers to score 37 points. "Rip City" cut their deficit to eight points (73-65) for the closest in the third period.

Anthony Edwards stepped out to end the sloppy work of the Timberwolves in the quarter. He shot 5-for-9 in FGs to contribute 15 points in the third period, extending his side's lead back to 23 points (99-76) when the period ended. The Trail Blazers' head coach Chauncy Billups didn't wait long to throw in the white towel in the final quarter by sending players from the end of the bench to the court for garbage time.

Other games on Thursday (away teams come first):

Milwaukee Bucks 110-113 Memphis Grizzlies

In the 10th game under Doc Rivers as the head coach, the Bucks suffered their seventh loss against short-handed Grizzlies at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee. Giannis Antetokounmpo made 15 of his 17 FG attempts to drop a double-double of 35 points and 12 assists for his side, but it didn't keep them from trailing during most of the time on Thursday night.

Even with only nine players available on their roster and four of them on two-way contracts, the Grizzlies limited the Bucks to 46.7 percent in FG rate. Six of their players score double-digit points, led by 27 of Ziaire Williams who knocked down seven jumpers out of 11 attempts. GG Jackson and Lamar Stevens combined to contribute 40 points off the bench, outscoring their Bucks counterpart by 16 points.

Damian Lillard shot 7-for-21 from the field, including missing 10 of his 13 triples, to get 24 points, seven rebounds and four turnovers for the Bucks. He only made one shot out of eight attempts in the fourth quarter.

Golden State Warriors 140-137 Utah Jazz

The only reason that the Warriors didn't lose at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Thursday was that the Jazz made one of the poorest decisions this season in their second-last offensive play. They trailed by only one point (138-137) when there were 21 seconds left in the fourth period. The didn't call a timeout. Lauri Markkanen missed a 3-pointer, but John Collins grabbed the offensive rebound. However, neither him nor coach Will Hardy called a timeout. Collins threw the ball outside without reaching any teammate but to the auditorium, giving the ball possession back to the Warriors when there were 2.4 seconds left.

The Jazz had no choice but to commit a foul over whichever Warrior that received the ball to stop the clock. Stephen Curry was sent to the free throw line and made two shots to extend their lead to three points. Collin Sexton got an open shot from the right corner in the next possession, but his shot failed to fall into the basket or save the Jazz.

Despite the win, the Warriors had another typical poor game of their style this season. They led by as many as 19 points, but fell apart again in the fourth period. The Jazz didn't shoot to kill in this period, but grabbed 24 rebounds, which gave them more than enough second-chance attacks to cut the deficit bucket by bucket.

The Warriors definitely wanted to win Thursday's game, which could be seen by coach Steve Kerr's decision of having Klay Thompson play off the bench. That ended his starting streak of 727 games and happened for the first time in 4,358 days. Thompson played well by going 7-for-13 behind the arc to score court-high 35 points, reaching 15,000 career points.

Nonetheless, some of Kerr's other arrangements were confusing. For example, he put a squad of 1.98-meter-tall Draymond Green accompanied by four guards smaller than him in front of the Jazz that had three big men, Markkanen, Collins and Walker Kessler. The Jazz made good use of their size advantage during that period of time to launch a 11-1 run. The Warriors were lucky to secure this win instead of blowing it like they did against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.