MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For most of Tuesday night, Game 5 between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Minnesota Timberwolves looked more like who wanted to lose it least instead of who wanted to win it more.
Plenty of turnovers, silly fouls, missed free throws were aplenty despite the stakes.
It ended with the Wolves relinquishing another double-digit lead late in a crushing 111-109 loss. The series heads back to Minnesota with Memphis ahead 3-2 despite the Wolves leading most of the night.
Ja Morant overcame a tough start to the night to send the Wolves back to Minnesota losers with a layup with one second remaining after Anthony Edwards had tied the game just moments earlier with a 3-pointer.
The Wolves led by 11 in the fourth when Memphis went on a 10-run to cut it to 99-98 with 4 minutes, 39 seconds to play. The Wolves were able to keep Memphis from taking the lead just barely as their half-court offense stagnated. A Brandon Clarke tap out set up Morant for a go-ahead 3 to put the Grizzlies ahead 107-106 with 1:03 left.
After a Karl-Anthony Towns turnover and a Wolves stop on defense, D'Angelo Russell missed a contested mid-range shot with 12.3 seconds remaining before they fouled Morant.
Edwards nailed a tying 3 from the right corner with 3.7 seconds to play before Morant's heroics lifted Memphis. Morant had 30 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists while the Wolves couldn't keep Clarke off the offensive glass with 21 points and 15 rebounds, nine on the offensive glass.
Towns had 28 points and 12 rebounds while Edwards had 22 points for Minnesota.
The night couldn't have started much worse for the Wolves, who looked like they weren't aware the game began at 6:30 p.m. Memphis raced out to a 13-2 lead and Towns picked up two fouls before coach Chris Finch called a timeout. The Wolves got themselves together after that.
Towns stayed on the floor and didn't pick up a foul the rest of the quarter while the Wolves finally got going on the offensive end. They scored the next nine points out of the timeout and announced they were going to make it a game after all.
The Wolves made up for their seven turnovers in the period by hitting 7 of 11 to open the night from 3-point range and managed to lead 31-28 at the end of the quarter.
The bench picked up where the team left off. Towns, Edwards and Russell sat and the Wolves increased their lead to 10 at the start of the second.
The Wolves, however, cooled off from 3-point range in the second quarter and were just 1 for 9 and couldn't build on that double-digit lead. Memphis struggled at the foul line, going 10 for 18 in the first first half with Morant going 2 for 7 to start.
Towns picked up his third foul with 2:46 to play in the half and exited momentarily with seven points while the Wolves clung to a 55-53 lead at halftime despite committing 14 turnovers. Memphis had 11 of its own.
Finch won a big challenge early in the third when he successfully got replay review to overturn an offensive foul on Towns, which would have been his fourth, into a defensive foul on Jaren Jackson, his fourth. That came in the middle of a 7-0 Wolves run.
Memphis continued to struggle from the outside and went 0 for 8 from 3-point range in the quarter, and the Wolves used that to build their lead to as much as 13.
Morant threw some excitement into a quiet building with a thunderous dunk over Malik Beasley to end the quarter with the Wolves up 11. He wasn't done with his heroics.
Memphis used that energy from that instantly viral moment to go on a 6-0 run, but Minnesota got back on track quickly, and a Towns 3 put them back up 13 with 9:37 to play.
The night got worse from there for the Wolves.
