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Los Angeles: Anthony Edwards scored 29 points and Karl-Anthony Towns hit a clutch long-range shot in the final seconds to help the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Dallas Mavericks 105-100 on Tuesday to stay in the NBA Western Conference finals.
The Timberwolves trailed 3-0 in Game 4 of the best-of-seven series but fought back late to win on the Mavericks’ home court.
Edwards led Minnesota, but the decisive contribution came from Towns, who made three consecutive 3-pointers to put the Timberwolves ahead 98-92 with less than two minutes left.
“In Game 4, I was down 3-0, and it wasn’t time to doubt myself,” Towns said of his scoring streak. “I just wanted to go out there and be aggressive, shoot the ball, and be confident in every shot I took.”
“Defensively, I want to be as disciplined as possible. Offensively, I want to not lose confidence and not lose my aggressiveness.”
After Towns gave Minnesota a six-point lead, Edwards extended the lead to 100-92 with a jumper with 1:47 left, giving the visitors control of the game.
But Dallas still had time to give the third-seeded team a tight finale, cutting the deficit to three points at 100-97, then extending the Timberwolves’ lead to five points with a stellar pull-up jumper from 21 feet out by Edwards with 40 seconds left.
The visitors held on until the final whistle and now have one last lifeline to hang on to as they return to Minneapolis for Game 5 on Thursday.
Edwards said he was determined to prevent Dallas from winning outright.
“Even though I’ve been to the playoffs three times, I’ve never been swept in my career,” Edwards said on TNT. “I take it personally.”
“I definitely don’t want to get swept, especially at their home stadium and listen to the fans talking trash all day. I thought we played really well today and at a high level.
“I thought I was aggressive. I didn’t shy away from the ball, they kept passing it to me and trusted me,” Edwards added.
Doncic demands better
Although Luka Doncic recorded another triple-double, finishing with 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, Dallas was still frustrated by the loss.
However, Doncic had a poor long-range shooting performance tonight, making only 4 of 11 three-pointers. Dallas as a team made 14 of 40 three-pointers.
“This is all my fault,” Doncic said. “We have to do better. They won a game and we just have to focus on the next one.”
“It was close in the end but we couldn’t win. So they won and now we just have to focus on the next game.”
Towns finished with 25 points, Mike Conley had 14 and Rudy Gobert had 13.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd praised the contributions of Timberwolves talisman Edwards.
“He’s been playing at a high level all season long,” Kidd said.
“He’s one of the best young players — you can actually take the word ‘young’ out of it — he’s one of the best players in this league.
“Kudos to Minnesota. They fought hard and found a way to extend the series, and now it’s Minnesota’s turn.”
— AFP
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