Anthony Edwards‘ inspiring positivity and admirable confidence – even in the face of overwhelming odds – helped the Minnesota Timberwolves earn at least one victory in the Western Conference finals.
Edwards’ attitude even rubbed off on Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns who struggled offensively in the first three games of the series but delivered the fourth game.
Edwards, Towns and the Timberwolves avoided a sweep against the Dallas Mavericks with a 105-100 victory in Game 4 on Tuesday night.
Edwards had 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, and Towns had 25 points.
The Timberwolves are 3-0 in elimination games in the 2024 playoffs.
“We’ve been resilient team all year,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “We never lost three in a row until we got to to the playoffs, and we never lost four in a row. Guys respond. It’s a fun team to coach because they believe that they can always win no matter what.”
Game 5 is Thursday in Minneapolis, where the Mavs took the first two games of the series. If Minnesota can make it a 3-2 series, it puts pressure on Dallas to close out the series at home in Game 6 because it doesn’t want to play a Game 7 on the road.
Getting there is a challenge. No team has come back from 3-0 deficit to win a series in the NBA playoffs, and just four of those teams down 3-0 have forced a Game 7.
That won’t alter Edwards’ mindset. “What am I supposed to say?,” Edwards said. “I’m supposed to say we’re going to lose game five? No, I’m not going to never say that.”
It was far from a perfect game for the Timberwolves, whose 15 turnovers led to 30 Dallas points. But Towns had his best game of the series even though he fouled out and collected his fifth foul in the third quarter. He entered Game 4 shooting just 27.8% from the field and 13.6% on 3-pointers but was 9-for-13 and 4-for-5 in the win. Towns had 20 points in the second half: 10 in the third and 10 in the fourth.
“KAT’s a great player,” Finch said. “His struggles were not going to last forever. He got himself going even when he got deep in foul trouble. We left him out there. I was going to take him out one moment, then I believe he got fouled so we left him in anyway. Just let him roll. He played smart, played under control, rebounded really well for us, executed, defensively. Really proud of him. He’s been a huge part of every series up until then, and we knew we had to get him into this series and tonight was a great step for that.”
The Timberwolves shot 52.7% from the field and 45.8% on 3-pointers. When shots go down, a player and team look much better.
The Timberwolves were held onto a lead late in the fourth quarter, something they had been unable to do in the first three series. A Towns 3-pointer extended Minnesota’s lead to 98-92 with 2:54 left in the fourth, and Edwards made a 3 with 39.7 seconds to go for a 102-97 Timberwolves lead.
Minnesota, which owned the No. 1 defense in the regular season, held the Mavs to 42% shooting from the field and 35% on 3s. All-NBA guard Luka Doncic had a triple-double (28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists) for the Mavs, who were without injured All-Rookie center Dereck Lively II (sprained neck).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA playoffs: Minnesota Timberwolves defeat Dallas Mavericks in Game 4
