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The Minnesota Timberwolves have pushed the Los Angeles Lakers to the brink. Sunday night’s 116-113 victory at home has Anthony Edwards and company up 3-1 in the Western Conference first-round series, which reverts to Los Angeles. Tip-off for Game 5 takes place at 10 PM ET.
Coach Chris Finch has led the T’Wolves to the postseason each of his four years at the helm, including the second trip to the Western Conference finals in franchise history last spring. The Lakers are in danger of getting knocked out in the first round for the second straight season and third time in five years since winning the 2020 NBA championship.
Let’s review both teams’ performance in Game 4 while previewing this matchup and making a Timberwolves @ Lakers NBA pick.
Edwards exploded for 43 points and added 9 rebounds and 6 assists as Minnesota took Games 3 and 4 at the Target Center. Julius Randle had 25 points and 7 rebounds, followed by Jaden McDaniels with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Naz Reid with 12 points.
Edwards has been building up to this performance. He leads the Timberwolves with 29.8 points this series. The Georgia alumni had 22 in the opener, 25 in Game 2, 29 in Game 3 and 43 Sunday night. It was the first time he led the team in scoring this series, but Minnesota’s alpha dog has been on point overall, leading the team in rebounds (7.8) and assists (5.8) as well, and his 4.0 3-pointers made per game are tied for the NBA’s best this postseason.
Randle is averaging 22.5 points, while McDaniels has had a great series, leading the team in scoring twice while averaging 19.8 points and 7.3 rebounds. Minnesota is scoring 108.5 points per game.
Luca Doncic rebounded from a stomach flu that held him to 17 points in Game 3 to lead the Lakers with 38 points Sunday. However, he didn’t have a great all-around game, as he only totaled 2 assists and 1 rebound, well below his series average and far beneath his season marks. He is averaging 30.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game in the series.
LeBron James had 27 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists and averages 26.3, 9.5 and 5.5 for the series. Rui Hachimura added 23 points, while Austin Reaves chipped in with 17 points, which equals his postseason average this year.
Minnesota went 49-33 this season, good for sixth in the Western Conference. However, the team struggled to find its new identity after trading Karl-Anthony Towns to New York for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. But this is Edwards’ team now, and Randle has settled into his complementary role, and the two have hounded the Lakers all series. Doncic’s health didn’t help, but Los Angeles may not have the team to get out of this series despite being the No. 3 seed.
As he showed in Game 4, Edwards is ready to turn the lights out on this series and get the Timberwolves back into the Western Conference semis. From a scoring perspective, he has treated each successive game like he is building weight on the bench, nearly doubling his 22-point output in Game 1 to 43 Sunday night.
Edwards could very well post a duplicate performance tomorrow evening. In any case, he should score more than 28.5 points for the third straight game for Minnesota.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.