Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Minnesota’s Ayo Dosunmu scored 43 points off the bench on Saturday as the Timberwolves shook off two potentially devastating injuries to beat Denver 112-96 and take a 3-1 lead in their NBA playoff series. All-Star guard Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo both exited in the first half, with Edwards suffering a left knee injury when he came down awkwardly after contesting a basket shortly before half-time. DiVincenzo was hurt less than two minutes into the contest and according to ESPN suffered a torn right Achilles tendon.
“This is for them,” said Dosunmu, who made all five of his three-point attempts and became just the fourth bench player in playoff history to score 40 points in a game. “Ayo was just out of this world,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Just play after play after play.” Trailing by four at half-time, Minnesota bore down in the second half to pull away in front of an ecstatic crowd at their Target Center arena in Minneapolis. Naz Reid added 17 points off the bench to help the Timberwolves withstand a 30-point performance from Jamal Murray and a near triple-double of 24 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists from Nikola Jokic.
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Three-time MVP Jokic and the Nuggets, who have lost three straight games, will be trying to fend off elimination in the best-of-seven Western Conference series when they host game five on Monday. It promises to be tense after a scuffle at the buzzer sparked when Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels scored a basket with the outcome decided and most players heading to the sideline. An irked Jokic rushed him, and players had to be separated.
The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder are also on the brink of reaching the Western Conference semi-finals after a 121-109 victory over the Suns in Phoenix, fueled by a sensational 42-point performance from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But Eastern Conference top seeds Detroit fell 2-1 down to the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic, who fended off a late Pistons rally to secure a stirring 113-105 home victory. The New York Knicks, seeded third in the East, reasserted their authority with a 114-98 victory over the Hawks in Atlanta and will head home for game five on Tuesday with their series tied at 2-2.
Oklahoma’s Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and a finalist for this year’s MVP, connected on 15-of-18 shots from the floor in a ruthlessly efficient shooting display. “I think we did a really good job tonight of playing to our identity offensively,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It kept their defense as a whole, which is a really good defense, in a bind (as to) what to pick and choose.” Dillon Brooks scored 33 points for the Suns, who grabbed an early nine-point lead and kept it close in the second quarter but couldn’t find a way to stop Gilgeous-Alexander down the stretch. Ajay Mitchell scored 15 points, and Alex Caruso added 13 off the bench for the Thunder. They’ll try to polish off a sweep on Monday in Phoenix, where the Suns will be painfully aware that no NBA team has rallied from 0-3 down to win a playoff series.
In Orlando, Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane scored 25 points each for the Magic, whose 17-point fourth-quarter lead was erased in a powerful late effort from Cade Cunningham, who led all scorers with 27 points. But having nudged into a single-point lead with three minutes remaining, the Pistons didn’t score again, and Orlando closed it out with a 9-0 run. Banchero added 12 rebounds and nine assists, while Bane matched the Orlando franchise playoff record with seven three-pointers. “We know how we stack up, we know what we got in this locker room and so we don’t fear them,” Banchero said.
Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff, whose team comfortably topped the East with 60 wins, said it was now a matter of taking it “one game at a time.” “If we win on Monday, we take home-court advantage back,” Bickerstaff said. That’s exactly what the Knicks did with their big win in Atlanta after dropping two straight games by just one point each. Karl-Anthony Towns had his first career playoff triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.
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