A statement win in Minneapolis.
Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves needed a win on Sunday night and they got one, fighting back from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 114-109 at Target Center and tie the Western Conference Semifinals at two games each.
Anthony Edwards dropped 16 of his 36 in the final period, and the Wolves outscored San Antonio 34-25 in those last twelve minutes with Gobert and Naz Reid bullying their way around the paint as Target Center got loud in a way it had not been all series.
The whole tone of the game shifted with under nine minutes left in the second quarter when Victor Wembanyama was ejected for a Flagrant 2, his elbow catching Reid square in the neck after a rebound scrum.
Losing a seven-foot-four shot blocker for 36 minutes of playoff basketball should have been an easy break, but San Antonio still led most of the third and went up 94-91 in the fourth.
Gobert finished with 11 and 13, two big dunks in the closing minutes, including one where Luke Kornet helped off him to chase Randle and paid for it.
Gobert on the Group's Identity
After the game, Gobert was asked what has kept this group from cracking through a series that has been a mess of momentum swings.
"We have a resilient group of guys you know and no matter what, no matter the circumstances we going to keep fighting," Gobert said. "That's who we are you know... when it matters we raise our level."
Gobert sits atop the 2026 playoff rebounding leaderboard at 104 total boards through the postseason, and the wrinkle of going head-to-head with Wembanyama, who he mentored back in France, has pushed him to the edge of his game on both ends.
The 33-year-old does not get a lot of love nationally anymore, but his fingerprints are all over why Minnesota is in this thing.
What Game 5 Means
Minnesota walked into Game 4 down 2-1, without Donte DiVincenzo for the rest of the playoffs after his torn Achilles in round one, and the bench keeps finding answers anyway.
Ayo Dosunmu attacked a Wemby-less paint for a huge and-1 that made it 110-103, Reid added 15 and nine off the bench while playing through an ankle scare, and Edwards finally looked like the player from his pre-injury stretch.
Game 5 in San Antonio on Tuesday is essentially a new series.
Wembanyama is going to be back, and his 39-point Game 3 is fresh in everyone's mind.
Randle has been preaching attacking the rim anyway, and that has to carry over to Frost Bank Center.
What gets the Wolves to 2-2 might not be enough on the road, especially against a team that just dropped 133 on them in Game 2.
They will need everything Gobert was talking about, plus a few breaks they did not need on Sunday.