DALLAS – At least once in each Timberwolves playoff series, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards seemed like they were auditioning for a comedy sitcom during their postgame press conferences.
Timberwolves defeat Mavericks in Game 4, avoid sweep with Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards in charge
Anthony Edwards was hot early and Karl-Anthony Towns put together a massive second half to keep the Timberwolves alive in the Western Conference finals. Game 5 is Thursday at Target Center.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 29, 2024 at 10:08PM
The laughter and smiles were in short supply as the Wolves lost the first three games of the NBA Western Conference finals to Dallas, but everything was fine again Tuesday, at least for one night.
The Wolves took down the Mavericks 105-100 before 20,477 at American Airlines Arena to keep their season alive and force Game 5 on Thursday at Target Center.
It took Towns and Edwards re-finding themselves to finally get the first win of the series. The two outdueled Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving for the first time. Edwards had 29 points, including key buckets in the final minutes that the Wolves weren’t converting in losing fourth-quarter leads during the first three games in the series.
Before that, Towns caught fire after a miserable first three games. He danced around foul trouble all night to score 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting before fouling out with 98 seconds to play. He had three clutch threes in the fourth quarter to put the Wolves ahead for good.
A common source of the Towns and Edwards comedy hour has been Towns’ foul trouble, as it was again after Game 4.
”What I tell you about fouling?” Edwards said.
“You had five though,” Towns replied.
“But I didn’t foul out,” Edwards said, telling reporters, “I’mma beat him up on the bus.”
All was good again in Wolves Land, even as there is still a long way to go for the team to advance to its first NBA Finals.
When asked if this victory changed the complexion of the series, Wolves coach Chris Finch was succinct in his response.
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“It doesn’t,” Finch said. “We gotta win again.”
And again and again. But the Wolves at least leave Game 4 feeling like they played some of their best defense of the series, as they limited Irving (16 points) and Doncic (28 points) to a combined 13-for-39 shooting.
The Mavericks shot 42% for the night and the Wolves were able to take advantage of the absence of big man Dereck Lively II (neck strain) to shoot 53%.
The Wolves’ late-game offense finally arrived in the series, specifically for Edwards, whose long two from the right wing gave the Wolves a 102-97 lead with 39.7 seconds remaining and prevented Irving or Doncic from pulling off any last-second heroics.
“It took a lot of resiliency from our guys,” said point guard Mike Conley, who was key with 14 points, seven assists and four steals, and not turning the ball over once. “There was a lot of moments there where the game could have went the other way or we could have let go. And guys wouldn’t let the refs or big plays or anything get in our way. We just kept moving forward.”
That applied to Towns, who had a game that was equal parts infuriating and effective. But Towns gave the Wolves what they needed to continue in this series.
“KAT’s a great player. His struggles were not going to last forever,” Finch said. “He got himself going. Even when he got deep in foul trouble, we left him out there. … Just let him roll, and he played smart, played under control, rebounded really well for us, executed defensively. Really proud of him.”
Towns picked up his fifth foul with 4:59 to play in the third quarter. In that period, he committed a pair of offensive fouls — the kind of “stray voltage” fouls, a term Finch likes to use, that have gotten him into trouble many times before in playoff games.
Towns had 15 points at that point, but he was able to play 7:29 in the fourth quarter before picking up his sixth, and the Wolves needed his shot making. Towns had 10 points after getting five fouls, all in the fourth quarter.
His last three gave the Wolves a 98-92 lead with 2:54 to play. Before that, another Towns three put them ahead 95-90 on a play that Wolves forward Kyle Anderson seemed to singlehandedly orchestrate himself without the ball.
On the play, Anderson told Towns to space to the left corner as Edwards drove to the lane from the right wing. Anderson motioned for Edwards to hit Towns as he set a screen to pop Towns open.
“I was dribbling the ball. I damn sure was about to shoot it,” Edwards said. “And I seen him pointing at big fella, and I’m like ‘OK, cool.’ Big fella, he done cashed out.”
Added Towns: “Kyle made that play happen tonight. He made a lot of plays happen, especially his defense.”
Anderson had just two points, but he added four assists and three offensive rebounds and was able to provide defense on Doncic at times. Doncic had a triple-double with 10 assists and 15 rebounds, but he shot only 7-for-21 and had three turnovers.
“That game is on me,” said the All-NBA first team point guard. “I didn’t bring enough energy, I have do better.”
The Wolves did just enough.
“It was special to get the dub, especially in a hostile environment,” Anderson said. “Showed a lot of our toughness, for sure.”
That also applied to Finch, who was up and moving around the huddle without his crutches during timeouts for the first time all series. He even drew a technical from official Scott Foster after Towns picked up his fifth foul.
“Finchy, he’s our leader,” Conley said. “He’s the guy that’s made this thing work from the beginning. To have him be on the sideline, but behind the bench, for the majority of these playoffs, you forget the impact it can have when your coach is up getting technicals, yelling and we see him hobble around to do it, it’s impressive. It lit a fire in all of us.”
They will have to keep the fire burning a while longer.
Despite so-so record, Wolves have improved at crunch time.
