Karl-Anthony Towns‘ exceptional performance in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks helped the Minnesota Timberwolves avoid getting swept and keep their season alive. The forward scored 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, in the Timberwolves’ 105-100 win in Dallas. Udonis Haslem was thoroughly impressed but not surprised by Towns’ performance and praised him for coming up clutch in a do-or-die for his team. On ESPN’s Get Up, the Miami Heat icon said,
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“[Karl-Anthony Towns] is the ultimate professional. He believes in himself and puts the work in behind the scenes. When you put in work behind the scenes, it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks. It doesn’t matter how many shots you miss or you make. You know you’re going to make shots at some point… He’s getting to the basket, he’s scoring from all three levels. He was himself last night.”
Towns’ stellar performance in Game 4 was his best outing since the Timberwolves’ Game 2 win over the Denver Nuggets in the Conference semis, where he scored 27 points. In the subsequent eight games, he scored more than 20 points only twice, failing to hit that mark in each of the first three games of the Western Conference Finals.
While Haslem praised Towns’ effort, he berated Kyrie Irving for his comments in the pre-game warmups. While shooting free throws, the 2016 champion said the game was the Timberwolves’ Super Bowl, but it was just another game for the Mavs. The veteran is technically correct, as Game 4 was a do-or-die game for Minnesota, while Dallas still has three more chances to close out the series. But Haslem wasn’t too impressed with that attitude and said,
“You want to win that game. You want to close out. You do not want to give a team another opportunity, especially when it’s that close of a margin down the stretch and you have guys like KAT and Ant[hony Edwards] who haven’t outplayed the guys who they’re very capable of [outplaying]. They outplayed them once, you give these guys confidence now going back home, I think Dallas is in a little more than they want to admit.”
Haslem is spot on. The Timberwolves were in a similar spot against the Nuggets when they lost Game 5 and needed back-to-back wins to advance. They thrashed them at home in Game 6 and won the series decider on the road to eliminate them from the playoffs.
If the Timberwolves win Game 5 at home, they’ll return to Dallas for Game 6 with the wind in their sails, knowing a win would set up a winner-takes-all Game 7 back in Minnesota. The Mavericks’ lethargic attitude may have given the Timberwolves the lifeline they needed to mount an unprecedented comeback.
Kevin Garnett demands Anthony Edwards out-alpha Luka Doncic
In addition to being their first option on offense, Anthony Edwards has been the emotional leader of the Timberwolves during these playoffs and has been able to outplay and outmatch the energy of the best player on the opposition team. However, that hasn’t been the case against the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.
Luka Doncic has not only outplayed the young guard but his energy and intensity have dwarfed Edwards’. Following the Mavericks’ Game 2 win, Kevin Garnett challenged the Timberwolves star to snatch the Slovenian superstar’s alpha status in the series. On the KG Certified podcast, the Hall of Famer said,
“I think in every series Anthony Edwards has played in, he’s been the alpha of the series. This is the first time he comes up against someone that’s equal of the presence. Luka come in the gym, you know he in the gym.”
Edwards failed to do that in Game 3, but with his team’s season on the line in Game 4, he showed up and scored 29 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished nine assists in a five-point win. He’ll have to do it three more times in a row to help his team advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
