Karl-Anthony Towns, Wolves grind out Game 4 to avoid sweep - ESPN

DALLAS — After Karl-Anthony Towns busted out of his shooting slump to score 25 points in the Minnesota Timberwolves' 105-100 Game 4 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, Anthony Edwards had one more assist for the All-Star big man during their shared postgame news conference.

Intercepting a question during which Towns was asked to explain what changed — coming off a disastrous Game 3 that caused his coach, Chris Finch, to admit it was «hard to watch» — Edwards answered for him.

«Everything came together for him, he was super confident,» Edwards said. «He played exceptionally well, and he came through big time. He was the reason we won tonight.»

Towns shot 9-for-13 from the field and 4-for-5 on 3-pointers, scoring 10 of his points in the fourth quarter to help the Wolves finally exorcise their late-game demons after folding down the stretch through their 0-3 start to the Western Conference finals.

He came into the night shooting just 15-for-54 for the series (27.8%), including a 3-for-23 mark from 3 (13%).

«It's Game 4, down 3-0, ain't no time to have any doubts,» Towns said. «Go out there and be aggressive, shoot my shot like I've been doing all series, being confident in every shot I shoot.»

Finch, who benched Towns for nearly the last nine minutes of Game 2, trusted his big man to play for most of the fourth quarter Tuesday with five fouls — subbing him in for Naz Reid with 9:25 remaining and leaving him in most of the rest of the way until he fouled out with 1:38 remaining.

«KAT's a great player,» Finch said. His struggles were not going to last forever. He got himself going. Even when he got deep in foul trouble, we left him out there.… Just let him roll, and he played smart, he played smart, played under