After Karl-Anthony Towns busted out of his shooting slump to score 25 points in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 105-100 Game 4 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, Anthony Edwards had one more assist for the All-Star big man during their shared postgame news conference.
Intercepting a question during which Towns was asked to explain what changed — coming off a disastrous Game 3 that caused his coach, Chris Finch, to admit it was “hard to watch” — Edwards answered for Towns.
“Everything came together for him; he was super confident,” Edwards said. “He played exceptionally well, and he came through big-time. He was the reason we won tonight.”
Towns shot 9-for-13 from the field and 4-for-5 on 3-pointers, scoring 10 of his points in the fourth quarter to help the Wolves finally exorcise their late-game demons after folding down the stretch through their 0-3 start to the Western Conference finals.
He came into the night shooting just 15-for-54 for the series (27.8%), including a 3 for 23 mark from 3-point territory (13%).
“It’s Game 4, down 3-0, ain’t no time to have any doubts,” Towns said. “Go out there and be aggressive, shoot my shot like I’ve been doing all series, being confident in every shot I shoot.”
“KAT’s a great player,” Finch said. “His struggles were not going to last forever. He got himself going. Even when he got deep in foul trouble, we left him out there. … Just let him roll, and he played smart, played under control, rebounded really well for us, executed defensively. Really proud of him.
“Tonight was a great step for him.”
Dallas guard Kyrie Irving suffered the first loss in a closeout situation of his career, dropping to 14-1 in such scenarios in large part because of Towns.
“That’s what great players do,” Irving said of Towns. “They figure it out.”
The Wolves hope to keep figuring out the Mavs to become the first team in league history to win four straight and capture a series after dropping the first three games. Game 5 is set for Thursday in Minneapolis.
