All-Star guard Anthony Edwards scored a career-high 51 points and the Timberwolves remained in the Western Conference No. 1 playoff spot with Tuesday’s 130-121 comeback victory over Washington at Target Center.

Trailing by as many as 21 points, the Wolves played much of the game without star forward Naz Reid and await the imminent return of All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns. Still, they overcame a 14th-place Wizards team that had lost seven of its last seven games.

They did so due to Edwards’ record-breaking night.

With Towns still out but cleared Tuesday for a return, Edwards scored his 51 points on a drive down the lane in traffic with 1:35 left before he went to the bench seconds later.

Reserve guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 18 of his 23 points in a first half when Reid was ejected.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 130, Washington 121

NBA standings

The Wolves trailed 44-26 after the first quarter, then outscored the Wizards 73-50 the next two quarters and led 116-103 with five minutes left.

Upon further review, Reid’s contact to the head of Wizards guard Johnny Davis boxing out underneath the basket was ruled “unnecessary” and “excessive” late in the first half. Reid received a flagrant-2 foul and was booted from the game.

Veteran Jalen Anderson stepped in and played more than he normally would, but it was Edwards and Alexander-Walker who picked up the slack.

Alexander-Walker scored 18 points by halftime with Reid absent. He made four three-pointers among those 18 points, but Washington made 13 of 20 attempts before halftime on their way to a 44-23 lead after a quarter and 70-60 after a half.

Alexander-Walker was instrumental in whittling a lead as large as 21 points to as few as five points in the first half’s final three minutes.

Edwards scored 38 of his points in the first three quarters.

The Wizards played without four injured players, including Apple Valley’s own Tyus Jones (back).

Earlier Tuesday, the Wolves announced star big man Karl-Anthony Towns has been cleared for full-contact, 5-on-5 basketball activities and is “progressing” toward a return to play.

He underwent surgery to repair a left knee lateral meniscus on March 12.

Towns sat on the Wolves’ bench Tuesday as he has done recently and coach Chris Finch said he’s optimistic Towns will play before the playoffs begin next week.

“That’s what we’re hoping. We’re hoping it’s sooner rather than later, but there’s not much time left, so we’ll take whatever we can get.”

Entering Tuesday, the Wolves had been 11-5 since Towns went down injured and were tied with Denver for first place in the Western Conference and remained there Tuesday before Wednesday’s crucial game at Denver.

In between, Finch has liked what his team — particularly Edwards — has fared with Towns gone.

“One thing we’ve gained, I give a lot of credit to Anthony because the pressure went up and for the most part I thought he did a really good job getting off the ball,” Finch said. “A really good job using what’s around you to create for your teammates.”