With another monumental performance by the Slovenian Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 116-107 and took a 3-0 lead in the series to place themselves just one step away from the NBA Finals.
Never in the previous 154 games has a team been eliminated after taking a 3-0 lead in a playoff series and the Mavericks will be able to complete their pass to their first Finals since 2011 next Tuesday, again at the American Airlines Center, after a performance of 66 total points between Doncic and Irving, 33 for each.
Four points had marked the differences in the first two games won by the Mavs in Minnesota. This Sunday in Dallas, the Mavs again left the Wolves touched in the final minutes by closing the match with a 13-3 run.
Doncic finished with 33 points (10 of 20 on field goals and 5 of 11 on triples), seven rebounds, five assists and five steals, while Irving scored another 33 points (12 of 20 on field goals and 3 of 6 on triples). The Mavs connected on fourteen of their 28 three-point attempts compared to the nine of thirty of the Wolves in which the Dominican Karl Anthony Towns finished 0 of 8 from the arc.
PJ Washington contributed 16 points for the Mavs and Derrick Jones contributed eleven with a perfect three-of-three from the three-point line, on a night in which the Mavs lost their rookie Dereck Lively to severe head trauma in the first period. The young center is out of danger.
The Wolves fell short again, after receiving a knockout blow two days earlier with Doncic’s decisive triple against Frenchman Rudy Gobert in the last breath. Anthony Edwards had 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, without a reward. Towns finished with fourteen points and eleven rebounds, but with a modest five of 18 shooting from the field.
Daniel Gafford seals the victory for the Mavs with a dunk.
ADAM DAVIS / EFE
It was played in a vibrant atmosphere in Dallas, with a legend like German Dirk Nowitzki, NBA champion with the Mavs in 2011, in the stands alongside NFL Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
It was a very difficult match for Lively, who had to leave with 8:35 minutes left in the second period. The Mavericks were already winning by ten points (43-33) at the time of his injury and, with fifteen points from Doncic and fourteen from Kyrie Irving, they had a maximum margin of twelve points, before a naive foul by Daniel Gafford with 0.3 seconds before the break allowed Gobert to reduce the deficit to eight points from the free-kick line (60-52).
Enter Edwards with eight straight points for the Wolves in the third period, starting with a powerful one-handed dunk that boosted his team’s confidence. A 15-3 run gave Minnesota the lead at 79-77 for the first time since 5-3 in the first quarter.
A spectacular exchange of blows then began, with Edwards leading the Wolves with a variety of plays, tackles and mid-range shots, and with Doncic and Irving leading the Mavs by the hand. Doncic hit a spectacular three-pointer to momentarily make it 97-94 in the fourth quarter and Irving made some left-handed baskets in the paint look simple after dancing around the Wolves defense.
The Mavs took advantage of the field factor and at the key moment they came out with an 11-1 run against the Wolves who did not score a point for almost five minutes. A jump shot from Irving, a block from Gafford to Conley and a wonderful ‘alley-oop’ from Doncic for Gafford himself sealed the match at 113-105 that propelled the Mavs to victory.
2024-05-27 07:49:02
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