Minnesota Avoids Sweep by Dallas as Towns, Edwards Carry Team to Game Four Victory
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 29 May 2024
The Dallas Mavericks fans were ready to shout, "Timber!" but the Wolves showed up and saved Minnesota for at least another day.
The Timberwolves came not as a team for the hewing but like a trapped beast fiercely determined to survive, clawing to a 105-100 win against the Mavs to avoid a sweep at the American Airlines Center arena in Dallas.
Though Minnesota still employed the strategy that revolved around its Twin Tower tandem of 7-1 Rudy Gobert and 7-0 Karl Anthony Towns backed up by 6-9 Jaden McDaniels, the Wolves were mainly led by the smallish but fiery duo of Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley.
The big difference in the Wolves in this game was their well thought of offense, how they carefully selected their shots and their more aggressive defense, how they used height, length and hustle to bother Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving and limit the contribution of their support casts.
The Wolves shot less from the field including the three points area but they converted more: 38 of 74 or 54 percent and 11 of 24 or 45 percent.
Their defense meanwhile allowed Dallas to hit just 34 of 81 for 42 percent including an atrocious 14 of 41 treys or 32 percent.
Typifying the Wolves improvement was Towns who had his best game in the series even though he fouled out and collected his fifth foul in the third quarter. He entered game 4 shooting just 28 percent from the floor including 14 percent from the three points land. In this game, he was 9 of 13 including 4 of 5 treys in the win. Towns scored 20 points in the second half, 10 points in each of the third and fourth quarter.
But the unsung hero for Wolves was Edwards who said after losing game 3 that the Wolves will take this game and return the series to Minnesota. He backed his words by a near triple double.
Edwards' positivity rubbed on to his teammates some of whom shot 50 to 100 percent of their shots from the floor, especially Towns, while forcing the Mavs to hit just one of three like Irving or even worse like PJ Washington. The dedication to defense could be seen in Town's fouling out and both Gobert and Edwards a foul away from disqualification by the 4th quarter.
After an even first half, the Wolves took the third quarter by five and never let go of that lead matching Dallas basket for basket and frustrating every rally of the Mavs for another comeback win.
The win preserved Edwards' near triple double of 29 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. Towns supported with 25 points and 5 rebounds while Conley hustled his way to 16 points. Gobert had 14 points and 10 rebounds and McDaniels managed 10 points. All eight players fielded in by Coach Chris Finch scored.
The loss on the other hand spoiled Doncic's 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists triple double effort for the Mavs. Irving was limited to "only" 16 less than half of the 33 he made in game 3. Daniel Galford had 14 points and PJ Washington just managed 10 points. Jaden Hardy came off the bench and contributed 13 points.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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