Timberwolves tie series with road win over Spurs

The Timberwolves didn’t just survive Sunday night — they reset the series. Minnesota beat San Antonio 114-109 in Game 4, tying the Western Conference semifinal at 2-2 and wiping out the Spurs’ chance to head home with a 3-1 stranglehold. Anthony Edwards was the reason it happened. He closed the game like a star who understood exactly what was at stake, and Minnesota finally got the kind of late-game punch it had been missing. ### Why was this game such a swing? Because 3-1 and 2-2 are basically different universes in the playoffs. San Antonio came in up 2-1 after back-to-back wins, including a 115-108 Game 3 victory in Minneapolis. If the Spurs had taken Game 4, Minnesota would have been staring at elimination. Instead, the Wolves turned a home loss into a split and put all the pressure back on the next game. (nba.com) ### What did Edwards actually do? He scored 36 points, but the important part is when they came. Edwards put up 16 in the fourth quarter and played the entire final period, hitting 6 of 8 shots as Minnesota clawed back from an 84-80 deficit entering the last quarter. That wasn’t empty scoring. That was game control. Every big Wolves possession started to feel like his possession. (espn.com) ### How much did Wembanyama’s ejection matter? A lot — even if San Antonio still made Minnesota sweat. Victor Wembanyama was ejected in the second quarter after a flagrant foul penalty two for elbowing Naz Reid in the face. That should have broken the Spurs. It didn’t. San Antonio kept pushing behind its guards and even led after three quarters. But over the final minutes, losing Wembanyama’s rim protection and two-way gravity became too much to cover. (nba.com) ### So why didn’t the Spurs fold? Because this version of San Antonio is deeper than the old one-man-Wemby caricature. Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle kept getting downhill in the third quarter, and De’Aaron Fox still gave the offense structure even after appearing to tweak an ankle in a loose-ball collision. That stretch is why the game stayed live. Minnesota won, but it didn’t expose San Antonio as fragile. (msn.com) It exposed how thin the margin is. ### What changed for Minnesota besides Edwards? The Wolves finally got the game onto terms they could manage — second-chance points, rim pressure, and timely threes instead of just trying to match San Antonio’s pace. Rudy Gobert finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 assists, and Minnesota got enough support around Edwards to keep the offense from stalling. That mattered because Game 3 had turned into a Spurs transition game, and Minnesota lost that version badly. (nba.com) ### What does 2-2 really mean now? It means the series is short again. Game 5 is set for Tuesday, May 12, in San Antonio, and the winner of that game will have the inside track with only two left after it. The Spurs still have home court. But the Wolves got the one thing they absolutely needed — proof they can absorb a punch in this matchup and still drag the series back to even. (foxsports.com) ### Is momentum real here? Sort of — but only in the practical sense. Minnesota didn’t steal home court for the whole series, because San Antonio still hosts Game 5 and a possible Game 7. What the Wolves did steal was control of the conversation. A matchup that looked like it was tilting Spurs is now a best-of-three, and Edwards just reminded everyone who the most explosive late-game scorer in it might be. (nba.com) ### Bottom line Minnesota’s road back in this series turned out to be simple, if not easy — survive the swing game, let Edwards own the fourth, and make San Antonio beat you three more times instead of one. Now the West semifinal starts over. (nba.com)