Behind Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Minnesota Timberwolves salvaged their season with a 105-100 Game 4 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
Edwards nearly had a triple-double, leading the Timberwolves with a game-high 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Towns topped the 20-point mark for the first time this series, adding 25 points and five boards before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Luka Doncic posted his sixth triple-double of this postseason in the loss, with 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 rebounds. Kyrie Irving fell to 14-1 in closeout games, scoring just 16 points and dishing out four assists on 6-of-18 shooting.
Game 5 will be Thursday in Minnesota as the Timberwolves look to extend their season once again.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. So naturally, the Wolves found themselves in a one-possession game against the Mavericks with Minnesota’s season on the line.
This time, however, the Wolves did something pretty unfathomable in comparison to the other games of this series. They protected a lead in the final minutes and matched Dallas point-for-point in the clutch.
Minnesota held a five-point game with five minutes left. Multiple times, the Mavericks knocked it down to a one-possession game, but the Wolves attacked intelligently in this one. Edwards made great decisions on offense, setting up Towns for a big 3-pointer.
He hit his own pivoting whirlwind of moves in the paint to knock down a short shot. He pulled up for a long 2-point jumper to keep the Mavs at bay. And the Wolves may have held their lead together with band-aids and thread, but it held together nonetheless.
This was the Edwards we’ve been waiting to see in the clutch. Intentional. Calm. Cool. Collected (outside of fouling Luka on a 3-pointer while up six).
While he still works on convincing the refs to give him the star calls, he closed like the star player he is and the one he’s projected to become. Now, can they do it again in Game 5? Or better yet … avoid a clutch game altogether with a big win? Sounds insane.
Dereck Lively II, even as a 20-year-old rookie, is the Mavericks’ third-most important player. (I’m comfortable saying that definitively even if there are reasonable arguments others could make for the team’s starting wings.)
With the youngster wearing street clothes on the team’s bench after a brutal head collision in Game 3, Dallas’ closeout effort in Game 4 was always going to require other players stepping up from unexpected places.
Maxi Kleber, cleared to play for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury in the final game of the first round, was the first one. With a backup center void needing to be filled, Kleber stepped in quietly but capably.
The Mavericks needed a player with more size than Dwight Powell who could be trusted to properly make rotations, which Kleber did.
There were bench guards who stepped up, too. Jaden Hardy, a second-year guard who hadn’t been in the team’s rotation until Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, contributed 13 points off the bench. Dante Exum scored five more in a four-minute stint, his first points in the series.
These were the type of contributions Dallas needed to make up for Lively’s crucial absence — if, alongside it, the Mavericks received the type of luxury shotmaking from their superstar duo they’ve come to expect throughout this series.
Heading into the fourth quarter down five, it sure felt like that familiar formula was ready to be repeated.
Doncic and Irving weren’t as brilliant as they had been all series, combining to shoot 13-of-40 from the field. Doncic briefly restored that potential feeling of magic, nailing a 30-foot jumper with a foul with 13 seconds remaining.
Typical of the duo’s night, however, Doncic missed the free throw that would’ve cut the lead to two.
Dallas now heads back to Minnesota with an atypical chance to close out this series in a gentleman’s sweep in a road arena. Dallas can win without Lively, but his return would surely make it easier.
