Anthony Edwards gets real on avoiding a sweep vs. the Mavericks

The Minnesota Timberwolves lived to see another day. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns came out firing and extended their series vs. the Dallas Mavericks to at least five games.

The series will now head back to Minneapolis for Game 5. The Mavericks were one win away from a trip to the NBA Finals, and they’ll now have to punch their tickets on the road.

Chris Finch’s team showed plenty of pride in the win, and they were finally able to hold on to a lead late in the game. When asked about his mindset ahead of the game, Edwards admitted that he took things personally this time.

Anthony Edwards Says He Took Things Personally

“I’ve never been swept in my career. Even though I’ve been to the Playoffs three times, I’ve never been swept, so I took it personal. I didn’t want to get swept. Not on their home court. Hearing their fans talk trash all day. I think we came out and competed at a high level today,” said Edwards.

Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves driving the basketball.

The young star had his best game of the series, scoring 29 points to go along with ten rebounds and nine assists. Also, Towns finally delivered, scoring 25 points with four three-pointers.

The Timberwolves Made Big Defensive Adjustments

The main takeaway from this game was the defensive adjustments on Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, who combined for 13-for-39 shooting. When asked about the gameplan, Towns simply claimed that they tried to prevent them from scoring:

“Our game plan is just not to let them score. I think that game plan we had of them scoring wasn’t gonna work out well, and it hasn’t,” Towns said. “We’re gonna do a better job this time around of making things more difficult.”

As vague as this might sound, it actually makes sense. The Timberwolves tried to hold the rest of the team back in the first three games of the series, but it’s never a good idea to let guys like Luka and Kyrie get into a rhythm.

see also

The shocking reason why the Warriors didn"t want Anthony Edwards

No team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in NBA playoff history, but that’s bound to happen at some point. Whether it’ll be in this series or not remains to be seen.