The Bounce Newsletter  | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.( )

The Wolves just saved us from nine days of no NBA playoff games. We need the league to rig things to give us at least a Game 6. I don’t trust us with time on our hands.( )

No Sweep For You!

Wolves avoid being swept. Now what?

I will never allow myself to believe an NBA team can come back from being down 3-0 in a playoff series. The Pacers recently became the 155th team to go down 3-0 in a series before becoming the 155th team to lose in such a scenario. Of those 155 teams, only 11 teams have ever forced a Game 6. Even fewer teams (four) have ever forced a Game 7, with last year’s Celtics being the most recent. So, when the Wolves beat the Mavericks 105-100 last night to put Dallas’ brooms away, no part of me thought, “Maybe this is the time.”( )

Through four games, the formula for this year’s Western Conference finals has been pretty much the same. Defense has been mostly stellar before we get down to crunchtime in the fourth quarter and see who executes the best. In the first three games, that last variable was Dallas’ strength. The Mavericks have ripped the Wolves’ hearts out in many ways, and everybody has pointed and laughed at Minnesota by result (scroll down for more about this).( )

But Game 4 was different. The Wolves held a five-point lead with five minutes left, which they maintained to notch their first win of the series. Most of that is because Anthony Edwards took a breath and remained calm. He showed poise and a stillness to his decision-making. With Minnesota up by six in the final minute, Luka Dončić was fouled on a made 3-pointer but missed the free throw, so the Wolves sealed the win.( )

The Wolves’ biggest performance didn’t come from Edwards, though, despite his team-high 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists (six turnovers too). Edwards scored or assisted on seven of their final 10 points as well, but Karl-Anthony Towns finally answering the bell made the difference for Minnesota. Funny enough, the internet has clowned him for a long time, but an article went semi-viral on Twitter yesterday. It talks about how corny Towns is as a person and a player. I won’t link to it because it was poorly done and not worthy of the attention. But maybe the internet suddenly defending Towns created some kind of cosmic gumbo to energize him for a big night.( )

Towns fouled out in 30 minutes, but not before dropping 25 points on 9-of-13 overall shooting and hitting 4 of 5 from deep. KAT scored 10 points apiece in the third and fourth quarter, respectively. His buckets were even bigger, considering elimination was hounding the Wolves. Now, Minnesota gets to try to do what only seven percent of NBA teams have done in this situation: force a Game 6.