DALLAS — Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half and the Minnesota Timberwolves held off the Dallas Mavericks 105-100 on Tuesday night to avoid a sweep in the Western Conference finals.
Anthony Edwards had 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists as the Timberwolves reached the conference finals for the first time in 20 years and just the second time in the franchise’s 35 seasons.
No. 3 seed Minnesota returns home for Game 5 on Thursday night to see if they can make the series more interesting against No. 5 seed Dallas.
Luka Doncic had 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists for his sixth triple-double of the playoffs, but he and costar Kyrie Irving shot just 13 of 39 from the field.
Irving, who was 14-0 in close games in his career, finished with 16 points.
The Timberwolves have led in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter in every game of the series and they did so again to seal the victory.
Towns, who picked up his fifth foul midway through the third quarter, put the Timberwolves ahead with a 3-pointer with 5:41 left and then made another 3-pointer on the next down.
Edwards made a jump shot from just inside the arc to give the Timberwolves a five-point lead with 39 seconds left, and Minnesota hung in there despite falling behind by three points after Edwards was fouled on Doncic’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.
Doncic missed the free throw and Naz Reid made a shot with 11 seconds left to put the lead back up to five.
