Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half and the Minnesota Timberwolves held off the Dallas Mavericks 105-100 on Tuesday night to avoid a sweep in the Western Conference finals.
Anthony Edwards had 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists as the Wolves stayed alive in their first trip to the conference finals in 20 years. Now Minnesota heads home for Game 5 on Thursday night to see if it can make the series against Dallas even more interesting.
Luka Doncic had 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in his sixth triple-double of these playoffs, but he and fellow player Kyrie Irving were just 13 of 39 from the field. Irving, who was 14-0 in closeout games in his career, finished with 16 points.
The Wolves have led in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter of every game in the series, and this time they got the job done.
Towns, who picked up his fifth foul midway through the third quarter, put the Wolves ahead for good with a 3-pointer with 5:41 to go, then hit another foul from deep the next time. Edwards put the Wolves up five with a jumper just inside the arc with 39 seconds left, and Minnesota held on despite Edwards fouling Doncic on a made 3-pointer for a Dallas three-point deficit with 12 seconds left. Doncic missed the free throw and Naz Reid hit a bucket to push the margin back to five with 11 seconds left.
Towns seemed to find a rhythm, scoring 10 points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter before picking up his fifth foul for elbowing P.J. Washington in the face as Towns went up for a shot. The call against Towns led to a technical foul against Minnesota coach Chris Finch. He flirted with a second technical foul, which would have meant an ejection, a few minutes later when Edwards was called for his fourth foul on a steal against Daniel Gafford.
Towns found the rhythm again in the fourth, finishing nine of 13 from the field, including four of five from deep.
The Wolves avoided being the 16th team out of 21 to be swept after losing the first three games of a series that started at home. Now they will try to be just the fourth to force at least six games.
