Anthony Edwards (23) scored 43 points and the Minnesota Timberwolves out-gunned the Los Angeles Lakers down the stretch to win a pulsating NBA playoff clash 116-113 and take a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference first-round series.
T’Wolves 116-113 Lakers
Luka Doncic scored 38 points and LeBron James added 27 for the Lakers, who took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter but are now one game away from elimination.
Jaden McDaniels drove for a basket and drew a foul with 39.5 seconds to play, converting the free throw to put Minnesota up 114-113 with 39.5 seconds left.
McDaniels then stole an inbounds pass from James and Edwards drew a foul on the Lakers superstar and made two free throws that sealed it as Austin Reaves missed a final three-point attempt.
The Lakers will try to stay alive in the best-of-seven series when they host game five on Wednesday.
Only 13 NBA teams have rallied from 3-1 down to win a playoff series. One of those was the James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals.
“Obviously, you don’t think about winning three (games),” James said. “You just think about winning the next one.”
Doncic and James played 46 of the game’s 48 minutes. That included every minute of the second half, when coach J.J. Redick stuck to the same five players throughout.
Trailing by three at halftime, the Lakers opened the third quarter on a 14-0 scoring run and led by as many as 12, taking a 94-84 lead into the final frame only for Edwards to lead the Timberwolves back.
“We haven’t lost nothing yet,” Doncic said. “It’s still the first one to four wins, and we’ve just got to still believe.”
Knicks 94-93 Pistons
The Knicks will have a chance to close out the Pistons in New York on Tuesday.
Jalen Brunson scored 32 points and Karl-Anthony Towns’s 27 points included two clutch baskets, but Detroit’s Hardaway had a shot to win it at the buzzer.
He missed, and coach J.B. Bickerstaff was fuming that no foul was called when Josh Hart bumped him, but Bickerstaff had no challenge remaining.
“There’s contact on Tim Hardaway’s jump shot,” Bickerstaff said. “I repeat, there’s contact on his jump shot.”
David Guthrie, the officiating crew chief, acknowledged after the game that Bickerstaff was correct, saying that a postgame review showed “Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr. and a foul should have been called.”
It was a heartbreaking outcome for the Pistons. Fueled by a 25-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double from Cade Cunningham, they erased an early 16-point deficit and led by 11 early in the fourth quarter.
Towns pulled New York within two points with a fiercely contested basket then drilled a three-pointer that put New York up 94-93 with 47 seconds left.
Celtics 107-98 Magic
In Orlando, Jayson Tatum scored 37 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, making all 14 of his free-throw attempts — including four in the final minute.
Tatum scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, when the Magic erased a nine-point deficit to tie it with less than five minutes to play.
Jaylen Brown scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for Boston while Kristaps Porzingis scored 19 – including a tip-in dunk off his own miss that put the Celtics ahead for good with 3:58 to play.
The Celtics host game five on Tuesday.
Pacers 129-103 Bucks
There was no late drama in Milwaukee, where Myles Turner scored 23 points to lead eight Pacers players to score in double figures in their romp past the Bucks.
Andrew Nembhard added 20 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 17 points, eight rebounds and 15 assists.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 28 points, but Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard exited in the first quarter with a lower left leg injury, falling to the court and grabbing his calf as he moved to corral a loose ball.
Lillard was playing his third game since undergoing treatment for a blood clot in his right calf. He had been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in March.
