DALLAS — Luka Doncic splayed his arms and legs, hurled the ball toward the hoop from nearly 30 feet out and watched as his latest attempt at a last-minute miracle fell through the net as a whistle sounded. His three-pointer had trimmed the Minnesota Timberwolves’ six-point lead in half with just 13.2 seconds left, and the Dallas Mavericks guard was headed to the free throw line with a chance to make things even more interesting.
A miracle wasn’t in the offing: Doncic missed the free throw, and the Mavericks missed their shot at a Western Conference finals sweep.
With the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics waiting to see which opponent they will draw in the NBA Finals, which open June 6, the Timberwolves staved off elimination with a 105-100 Game 4 victory at American Airlines Center on Tuesday. The West finals, which had been defined by Dallas’s crunchtime dominance in the first three games, will return to Minnesota for Thursday’s Game 5.
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Though Doncic posted a typically gaudy line of 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, his piercing stare and curt responses in defeat made it clear the Mavericks had squandered a good opportunity to dispense with the Timberwolves.
“That game was on me,” said Doncic, who hit key late baskets to seal wins in the first two games of the series. “I didn’t give enough energy. [The Timberwolves] won one game. We’ve got to focus on the next one.”
The Slovenian star’s blown free throw capped a frustrating night for the Mavericks, who finished with their lowest point total of the series and failed to keep Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns in check. Instead of controlling both ends of the late-game action as had become their habit, the Mavericks suffered from unusually imprecise offensive execution and were burned by a dagger jumper from Edwards and three clutch three-pointers by Towns.
Doncic shot 7 for 21 from the field — his worst outing in more than two weeks — and his backcourt partner was even less effective. Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, who closed brilliantly in Game 3, managed just 16 points on 6-for-18 shooting and committed a crucial turnover under heavy defensive pressure in the final minute.
“I started off the game with a few turnovers,” said Irving, who fell to 14-1 in potential closeout games during his postseason career. “If I’m setting an example like that, other guys are going to follow suit, unfortunately, at times. That leads to that lackadaisical play. ... A few times I got in the lane, I was indecisive. I turned the ball over late. A lot of this is on me being able to start the game well and finish the game well.”
When Dallas reviews the game tape, it will lament its inability to make Minnesota pay for its extreme foul trouble. With a little under three minutes remaining in the first half, Edwards, Towns and Rudy Gobert were on the bench with three fouls apiece. But the fill-in Timberwolves held firm, playing the final stretch of the second quarter to a draw. Dallas had erased an early 12-point deficit, but it was unable to seize control with all three Minnesota stars sidelined.
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Even so, the calls kept coming: Towns was whistled for his fifth foul with nearly five minutes remaining in the third quarter, which led to an irate Timberwolves coach Chris Finch getting a technical foul for disputing the decision. Gobert, meanwhile, picked up his fifth foul with more than eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but he avoided fouling out and made several key defensive stops down the stretch.
The Mavericks repeatedly let the Timberwolves off the hook by over-relying on their three-point attack, a development surely influenced by the absence of Dereck Lively II, who was sidelined with a neck sprain suffered in Game 3.
The rookie center had done great work as a rim-protecting defender, energetic rebounder and reliable finisher before his injury, and Dallas badly missed him in all three phases. Edwards, who scored a game-high 29 points, enjoyed more opportunities attacking the paint and had his best all-around game of the series. Minnesota also won the rebounding battle, and Dallas couldn’t find enough complementary scorers when starting center Daniel Gafford was off the court.
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Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a separated right shoulder, but he was mostly a non-factor in his first action since May 3. Backup center Dwight Powell lasted just three minutes, looking overmatched just as he had in a brief Game 3 stint.
“It’s hard to close in this league,” Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd said. “We didn’t play our best. We fouled too much. We’ve got to keep them off the line. We’ve got to guard the three better. We didn’t shoot the ball well. There’s a lot of things we can do better.”
The off night from the Mavericks’ guards and their jumbled big man rotation set the table for Towns’s long-awaited reemergence. The all-star forward shot 3 for 22 (13.6 percent) on three-pointers in the first three games of the West finals, but he exploded for 25 points — his highest output since Game 2 of the second round — and went 4 for 5 from deep.
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“Everything came together for [Towns],” Edwards said. “He was super confident. He wasn’t worried about any of the shots previous to the shots he hit tonight. He played exceptionally well. He came through big time. He was the reason we won tonight.”
Three of Towns’s three-pointers came in the final six minutes. With Minnesota trailing 90-89, Edwards found Towns for a go-ahead three in the left corner. Moments later, the pair connected again for another triple from the same spot to give Minnesota a five-point lead with a little more than five minutes remaining.
Edwards then fed the hot hand one more time, finding Towns for his last three-pointer with just under three minutes left. Though Towns subsequently fouled out and Edwards sent Doncic to the line for his missed opportunity to convert the four-point play, Dallas couldn’t overcome Towns’s blitz.
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“Ain’t no time to have any doubts in your mind,” Towns said. “I’m going to go out there and be aggressive and shoot my shot like I’ve been doing all series. We get another chance to get another one [in Game 5]. Pretty simple.”
Edwards was already thinking another step ahead. After the Timberwolves lost to the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of the second round, the 22-year-old guard pledged to a Ball Arena ballboy that Minnesota would win Game 6 at home and return to Denver for Game 7. Edwards proceeded to make his second major guarantee of the playoffs when he spotted Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons following Tuesday’s win.
“Micah Parsons was rocking [my Adidas signature sneakers],” Edwards said. “He wears size 14. I’ll bring him back some nice shoes for Game 6. That’s what I told him.”
