The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-107 on Tuesday night, their crunch-time rally spoiled by D'Angelo Russell's tie-breaking layup past Anfernee Simons with 2.9 seconds remaining. Simons had the chance to send his team to a walk-off win on the game's next possession, but his tough chance from three caromed off the rim as time expired, sealing another hard-fought Minnesota victory at Moda Center—its second of the season.

“I thought we got a pretty good look,” Chauncey Billups said after the game. “He had a lot of length on him at the time. They did a good job on the ball slowing down the timing of the play. You gotta give them credit; it was a good defensive stop.”

The Blazers led 63-55  after an impressive first half. The ball pinged from side-to-side in the halfcourt, exploiting the Timberwolves' pressure-based defense to the tune of 18 assists. Portland's transition attack was alive, too, feeding off its activity and aggressiveness in a 2-3 zone on the other end. The first few minutes of the third quarter were more of the same, with Minnesota coach Chris Finch calling a timeout before the game clock read 9:00 as the Blazers pushed their lead to double-digits.

The game turned on the following possession, though, when Jusuf Nurkic picked up his fourth foul and headed to the bench.

Led by Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, Minnesota ripped off a 25-12 run from there, taking an 84-82 lead into the fourth quarter. The teams traded baskets in the opening minutes of the final stanza, setting the stage for Edwards' personal takeover. The No. 1 pick of last year's draft proved why and then some during a jaw-dropping two-minute stretch that consisted of a four-point play, another pull-up three-pointer and a ridiculous and-1 take through a maze of Portland defenders.

“Anthony Edwards was just…he was a handful,” Billups said. “He was making a lot of shots.”

Consecutive turnovers from Simons—on either side of a Blazers timeout, no less—led to a thunderous breakaway dunk from Edwards, putting the Wolves up 104-95 with 4:06 left.

It wouldn't have been surprising if that was when the Blazers folded. They just returned from an arduous, successful six-game road trip, and had lost Nassir Little to a shoulder injury moments earlier. A subsequent baseline jumper from Edwards, who scored 40 points altogether, seemed to make a comeback attempt even more futile.

But Portland buckled down instead of rolling over, going on a 9-2 run to make it a one-possession game. The Blazers were still forced to foul with 18 seconds left after Robert Covington bonked a layup spoonfed from Simons, but Russell going 1-of-2 at the line game them some life—and the opportunity for C.J. McCollum to play hero.

McCollum finished with 15 points on as many shots, his worst statistical outing since returning to the lineup after suffering a collapsed lung last week. Like Simons, he was frustrated offensively by pressure applied from Minnesota's rangy, athletic wings. Billups even called Jarred Vanderbilt—whose most tangible impact, unsurprisingly, came on the offensive glass—the “MVP of the game.”

“I take credit for a lot of mistakes we made,” said Simons, who committed six turnovers for the second straight game. “I had a lot of careless turnovers.”

But the 22-year-old's most glaring misstep came on the other end, when his team most needed a stop. Instead, Simons afforded the deliberate Russell a free path to the rim with his strong hand, left to try for a helpless trail block that was correctly called a goaltend.

Billups, while acknowledging the defensive lapse was part of Simons' learning process, almost couldn't believe it.

“Not well,” he said, when asked how Portland defended Minnesota's final play. “We were in good position right there. He was able to get a step on Ant without even using a move. I'm pretty sure if Ant had a do-over he would play that a little bit differently…Russell got a layup. You never want to give a layup.”