Naz Reid is a fighter, and he views the NBA playoffs as a brawl.
After the San Antonio Spurs beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 115-108 on Friday to take a 2-1 series lead in the second round, Reid knew their win only meant so much.
“Punch back,” Reid said postgame. “It’s how you respond. That determines what kind of team you are [and] the type of person you are. It’s how you respond. Everybody can throw blows. It’s kind of just how you respond … I think we kind of do well in that aspect. I think that is just kind of who we are.”
The Timberwolves needed to punch back in Game 4 on Sunday.
They were staring down a 3-1 series hole, with Victor Wembanyama in the locker room for most of the game. The Spurs lost their star player, who’s capable of landing haymakers, early in the second quarter. They lost their right hook, but the Wolves didn’t lose theirs. Anthony Edwards remained squared up, and he and the Wolves had a knockout 114-109 win to even the series.
Less than three minutes into the second quarter, Wembanyama landed the first blow of the night. Reid and Jaden McDaniels were fighting for the ball. Wembanyama looked behind himself, saw Reid, and threw an elbow into his neck.
“Pain is weakness leaving the body,” Reid said postgame regarding the elbow.
The officials quickly went to the replay monitor to see if the offensive foul should be upgraded while the Target Center crowd reacted to the up-close replays for the first time. After review, Zach Zarba informed the crowd that the foul had been upgraded to a flagrant foul Penalty 2 and that Wenbanyma had been ejected from the game.
Wembanyama hung 39 points against the Wolves in Game 3, capitalizing on all of Minnesota’s mistakes and looking like the eighth-grade bully beating up a fourth grader. But the Spurs lost their bully early in Game 4, and the Wolves suddenly became the favorite to win the fight. Still, they didn’t swing back immediately.
“I thought we let our minds slip more than anything else,” Chris Finch said postgame.
Out of necessity, San Antonio shifted its offensive approach to focus on its guards De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper. In the second quarter, Castle scored seven points and dished out two assists. Edwards also scored seven points for Minnesota. Still, the Wolves drew even with the Spurs 26-26 in the frame and went into the locker room at halftime holding onto a four-point lead.
Finch emphasized to his players during the intermission the importance of containing the Spurs at the point of attack. San Antonio was compromised and wounded. Still, they had the firepower to win Game 4, only if the Wolves let them, though.
“We needed to get dialed back into playing smarter basketball,” Finch said. “Beginning of the third wasn’t smart basketball.”
The Spurs ripped off a 16-6 run in the third quarter to take an eight-point lead by playing exactly how Finch told his team they would — fast and through their guards. The Wolves committed six turnovers in the third quarter, shot 8-for-23 from the floor, and did not get back fast enough to defend in transition. Finch was visibly upset, slapping his legs as the Wolves allowed Fox, Castle, Harper, and Devin Vassell to combine for 24 points in the frame and gave up nine points off turnovers.
“The starting five has got to come out with a lot more energy,” Edwards said after the game regarding the third quarter, where he scored two points in 10 minutes.
“I was a big part of that in the third quarter. I was gassed a little bit, so I came out super low on energy, just walking up and down the floor. So my teammates have got to get on my ass for that.”
San Antonio didn’t need another right hook (or elbow) to land another forceful blow. They swung with their left in the third and sent the Wolves back, still standing, but in a hazy stupor. Terrence Shannon Jr. made two threes at the end of the third to bring Minnesota within four entering the fourth. But at that moment, the Wolves didn’t need to exchange blows — they needed their bully to emerge and connect on the fatal strike.
Edwards, who has been working to get healthy on the fly this series, looked much more like himself in Game 3, scoring 32 points. However, he shot 12-for-26 from the floor, and the Spurs made it difficult for him to find a groove in the fourth quarter, when he scored 5 points in 8 minutes.
During a close game, especially in the playoffs, Edwards lives for the fourth quarter. He usually drills the momentum-shifting shots, and when he does, he probably envisions knocking out his opponent and walking off the floor victorious.
Edwards played the entire fourth quarter in Game 4, scoring 16 points on 6 of 8 from the floor and 2 of 2 from deep. Both of those threes were the jab, cross, and uppercut. He finished Game 4 with 36 points on 13 of 22 (59%) from the floor in 40 minutes.
To Finch, who has coached all of Edwards’ 49 playoff games, this performance was one of the best of his career.
“He was awesome,” Finch said. “He was special. This is what he loves, this is what he lives for. Not just big games but big moments. I thought for the most part, when he wasn’t doubled, he got to his stuff quickly and clean. Just kind of figured out how to get separation, and that was just all he needed.”
After that three, San Antonio — barely still conscious — shifted and began forcefully trapping Edwards, who had already done the heavy lifting in the fight. The Wolves needed one last hit to make sure the Spurs weren’t going to get back up.
Reid provided that by passing to Rudy Gobert in the dunker’s spot for an and-one and corralling an offensive rebound, which he turned into two points.
“He just be playing hard for us this entire time, man,” Edwards said regarding Reid. “He dives on the floor. He does all the little things that other people don’t want to do.”
Reid knows the importance of punching back in the playoffs. The Wolves desperately needed that type of response in Game 4. He took a powerful blow to the neck and responded down the stretch. And Edwards slugged the Wolves to a win, tying the series up at 2-2 as they shift back to San Antonio for Game 5 Tuesday.
