The KAT Shows Up, Timberwolves Stay Alive, Force Game 5

The Minnesota Timberwolves threw a wrench in hundreds of headline writers' nights when they refused to get swept by the Dallas Mavericks, thus preventing all those headlines about the Eastern and Western Conference Finals sweeps.

The Timberwolves forced a Game 5 in Minnesota on Thursday night with a 105-100 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4. The key to the Timberwolves win was Karl Anthony Towns, who went 4 for 5 from the 3-point arc and made several key shots in the second half of the game. He finished the night with 25 points on 9 for 13 shooting from the field. While Kat showed up tonight, the Wolves still have a huge hole to dig themselves out of.

Anthony Edwards led the Timberwolves with 29 points and did not run out of gas in the fourth quarter. Clearly, the Wolves head coach, Chris Finch, did a nice job with specific adjustments for Ant-Man, which resulted in him not covering Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic all night.

Doncic had a 28, 12, and 10 triple-double night, while Kyrie seemed handcuffed most of the night by the Wolves' defense, which held him to just 16 points on 6 of 18 shooting from the field.

Overall, the Timberwolves, starting five all finished with double-digit points and collectively shot over 53% from the field.

Things could certainly get interesting if the Wolves can force a Game 6, but before anyone gets ahead of themselves, the Timberwolves will need to duplicate their performance in Game 4, which includes winning the last five minutes of the game.

POST GAME QUOTES:
"Being aggressive," Towns said. "Ain't no time to have any doubts in your mind, especially at this time. It's Game 4, down 3-0. Ain't no time to have any doubts."

"That game's on me. Just didn't give enough energy," said Doncic, who was 7-of-21 from the field, including 1-of-5 in the fourth when he and Irving had combined as closers to build the big series lead. "They won one game. We've just got to focus on the next one."

"He was super confident," Edwards said. "He wasn't worried about any shots previous to the shots that he hit tonight. He played exceptionally well."

"It's hard to close in this league," Dallas coach Jason Kidd said after his team shot 29% from 3 in the second half. "Understanding we didn't play our best. Give Minnesota credit. They did."

"To have him be on the sideline but behind the bench for the majority of these playoffs, you forget the impact he can have," said Mike Conley, who scored 14 points. "When your coach is up getting technicals and yelling and when you see him hobbling around to do it, it's impressive. It lit a fire on all of us."

"We weathered a lot of foul trouble out there, which was frustrating to say the least," Finch said. "Credit to our guys. They found a way to win the game. It was a lot like Games 1 and 2, and we were able to get it done tonight."