The Dallas Mavericks have won the first game in the play-off series of the North American basketball league NBA against the Minnesota Timberwolves and immediately gained an advantage in the Conference Finals.
The team around stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving secured a 108:105 away win in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening (local time). In an intense game with 15 lead changes, Doncic with 33 points and Irving with 30 points were the decisive players.
In Minneapolis, the teams gave the spectators a consistently exciting performance. The hosts pulled ahead by more than five points several times in the first half, but were never able to break away decisively. For the Mavericks, it was their first win at the start after five opening defeats in the previous play-off series.
“We had to work hard”
“We had to work really hard for this. But that’s only one win, we need three more,” said the Slovenian Doncic to the TV channel TNT and praised Irving’s strong performance. Irving scored 24 of his 30 points in the first half. Doncic scored 15 of his 33 points in the final quarter.
The second game of the series will take place again in Minneapolis on Saturday night, after which we will go to Dallas for two games. In the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers play against the Boston Celtics, who have a 1-0 lead in the series after a home win.
More about this in National Basketball Association 2023/24
