Naz Reid took the fateful elbow to the neck from a frustrated Wembanyama and finished with 15 points and nine rebounds to help the Timberwolves finish strong after some shaky stretches.
“Pain is weakness in the body,” Reid said. “That’s it.”
Edwards hit a 27-footer to bring the Wolves within 94-91, turning to shout at the crowd for some help down the stretch as the Spurs. His catch-and-shoot three-pointer from the wing with 5:12 left put them up 98-97, their first lead since midway through the third quarter.
Then the big men went to work without Wembanyama patrolling the paint. Rudy Gobert, who had 11 points and 13 rebounds, converted a three-point play with 3:02 left off a high-low feed from Reid and later threw down a dunk for a 107-101 lead with 1:56 to go after a slick pass from Julius Randle.
Reid’s follow shot with 40 seconds left gave the Wolves a seven-point lead, before Dylan Harper had a rebound, a drawn foul, a steal, and two free throws to help the Spurs pull within three.
After managing to corral a full-court baseball toss from inbound passer Jaden McDaniels as De’Aaron Fox undercut his leaping catch and caused a loose ball, Ayo Dosunmu drew a foul and sank two free throws with 9.8 seconds left to put the game out of reach and tie the series at two games apiece.
San Antonio hosts Game 5 on Tuesday, with Wembanyama’s status to be determined by the league following the Flagrant 2 foul call and automatic ejection he was levied for the excessive contact to Reid.
Harper and Fox each scored 24 points and Stephon Castle added 20 as the Spurs guards unflinchingly took the baton from their seven-foot-four superstar and turned the rest of the night into a mid-range clinic with an array of pull-up jumpers in and around the paint.
“Just trying to be what the team needed me to be,” said Harper, the second overall pick in the NBA draft last year. “I think I did OK. Obviously the main goal is to win. We didn’t get that done.”
The crowd at Target Center went wild when Wembanyama walked off the floor with Minnesota leading by two, but the Wolves never fully took advantage of the gift created by his absence. They’ve long had a tendency of losing their edge, particularly defensively, when an opponent’s star player is missing.
“When every team is missing their best player, everybody plays free. They get more shots, more confident,” Edwards said. “So I think it was a lot harder on us.”
After committing six turnovers in a 20-point third quarter, the Wolves found themselves in another eight-point hole early in the fourth following Fox’s three-pointer before delivering another clutch finish.
“We have a resilient group of guys. No matter the circumstances, we are going to keep fighting and give everything we have and keep trusting one another,” Gobert said. “Just making the right play. That’s who we are. We might not be always consistent with that, but I feel like when it matters, we raise our level.”
