Karl-Anthony Towns and Kyle Anderson of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrate during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals at American Airlines Center on May 28, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. Tim Heitman / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA via AFP
DALLAS— 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 (Wednesday morning, May 29, Philippine time) 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, and just the second in the franchise’s 35 seasons.
Now third-seeded Minnesota heads home for Game 5 on Thursday night to see if it can make the series even more interesting against No. 5 seed Dallas.
The winner of this series takes on the Boston Celtics, who swept the Indiana Pacers to rule the Eastern Conference.
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Luka Doncic had 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in his sixth triple-double of these playoffs, but he and co-star Kyrie Irving were just 13 of 39 from the field. Irving, who was 14-0 in his career in closeout games coming in, 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 finished.
Towns, who picked up his fifth foul midway through the third quarter, put the Wolves ahead for good on a 3-pointer with 5:41 remaining, then hit another from deep the next time down.
Edwards put the Wolves up five with a jumper just inside the arc with 39 seconds left, and Minnesota hung on despite Edwards fouling Doncic on a made 3-pointer for a three-point deficit with 12 seconds to go.
Doncic missed the free throw, and Naz Reid hit a bucket to push the margin back to five with 11 seconds remaining.