MINNEAPOLIS -- Eighteen minutes into Game 4 of the first-round series between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Houston Rockets, it seemed like the eight-seed Wolves really had something cooking.
After manhandling the NBA's best regular-season team in Game 3, which was the first home playoff game in Minneapolis in 14 years, the Wolves still seemed to have figured out the recipe to contain one of the best offenses in NBA history. They kept things physical. They forced the Rockets into contested shots. They did what they did in Game 3.
And most impressively, they held James Harden, the league's presumptive MVP and most unstoppable offensive force, to zero made field goals. Harden was missing, and missing badly. Andrew Wiggins -- Andrew Wiggins! -- was playing lockdown defense. His first seven shots, Harden missed every one. Going back to the beginning of Game 2, Harden had made only 11 of 46 shots, his worst shooting stretch of the entire season.
