Game 4 was a must-win for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
That was true coming into the night with the Wolves down 2-1 in the series, and certainly became true after a Victor Wembanyama elbow to the neck of Naz Reid ejected the San Antonio Spurs’ best player from the game with a Flagrant Two foul.
When Wembanyama exited the game with 8:39 in the second quarter, the opportunity for Minnesota was obvious. With the other team’s best player out for the rest of the game, the Wolves’ path to winning Game 4 became
a lot cleaner and, to put it bluntly, easier.
The Timberwolves showcased why in the next few possessions. Without Wembanyama’s rim protection, the Wolves went straight to the rim for layups and took what was a two-point lead when Wemby went out to a nine-point lead a few minutes later.
What happened from there was classic Minnesota Timberwolves basketball in the worst and best way.
The Wolves stopped attacking the paint or getting many good looks on offense, their ball pressure relaxed, which allowed the Spurs to get to their preferred spots on the floor, and at times, Minnesota mentally lost track of the game, including more than once allowing the Spurs to get a fastbreak bucket following a made basket on the other side of the floor.
As they have consistently done during this era of Timberwolves basketball, instead of stomping out any chance for the Spurs to come back, the Wolves let their foot off the gas. They appeared to play down to the level of their opponent, despite that team being of high quality even without their best player.
“I thought we let our mind slip more than anything else,” Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch said after the game. “I felt like we lost our way a little bit and then gave them life. We never expected them to just go away.”
The Timberwolves only won the second quarter minutes following Wemby’s ejection by two points, which put their lead at four points heading into the third quarter, where the Spurs were able to reset their rotations and strategy during the halftime break.
The start of the second half didn’t go much better for Minnesota. They missed 13 of their first 17 shots in the third quarter, while the Spurs made nine of their last 11 shots to win the quarter 28-20.
The San Antonio lead grew to eight points, and with less than eight minutes left in the game, a nervous energy began to take hold inside the arena. While that feeling of anxiety has been absent from this Timberwolves postseason run, it is certainly an emotion that Target Center crowds have become well acquainted with going back years and decades.
The difference with this Timberwolves team, though, is that they have Anthony Edwards. With the season on the line, Edwards scored 16 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter to drag a lifeless Timberwolves offense back into the lead.
“Today is Mother’s Day, so I just wanted to win for my mom,” Edwards said of his late mother, whom he lost at just 14 years old. “I couldn’t lose this game for her.”
Edwards did exactly that and did not let the Timberwolves lose this game while playing 40 or more minutes for the second straight game. With offense in the mud and the Spurs throwing constant double-teams at the Timberwolves superstar, Edwards did just enough to get the Wolves over the finish line.
In the same way that the Wolves often play down to the perceived level of their opponent, Edwards and the Timberwolves responded when their back was up against the wall. Despite having numerous poor stretches of play, when the game mattered most, the Wolves made enough winning plays to get the job done.
It was an ugly win for the Timberwolves in Game 4, but the manner in which they got the win doesn’t much matter anymore. What does matter is that the series is tied 2-2 with a set of three games left to determine who advances to the Western Conference Finals.
“Now it’s just take it one game at a time, trying to figure out how to get a win,” Edwards said about the rest of this series. “That’s the only thing that’s on my mind right now, trying to figure out how to get a win.”
