With 63 points between Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the Dallas Mavericks won 108-105 this Wednesday on the Minnesota Timberwolves’ court in the opening game of the NBA Western Conference Final.
Doncic, who scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, decided a game played out in extreme equality in Minneapolis, in which neither team had double-digit leads.
“We had to work very hard to get this (victory). But it’s only one, we need three more,” stressed the Slovenian point guard after the game.
The connection between Doncic and Irving, one of the best offensive duos in the NBA, ended up dismantling the best defense in the league.
The experienced Irving dominated the first half with 24 points, out of a personal total of 30, to set the tone for the Mavericks who are chasing their first Finals since 2011.
After the game, Irving acknowledged that recent statements by Anthony Edwards, Minnesota’s young figure, prompted him to start the game with greater aggression.
“I used it as motivation. “I was sitting at home and I saw him say that he was going to stop me,” she explained. “But that’s a fearless mentality and that’s what I like about him.”
The Timberwolves, who are competing in their first Conference Final in a decade, suffered from a gray night from both Edwards and their other offensive reference, the Dominican-American Karl-Anthony Towns.
Edwards, the great sensation of these playoffs at 22 years old, had 19 points (6-16 on field goals) and Towns had 16 (6-20), while forward Jaden McDaniels continued in a state of grace with 24 and six triples.
The Timberwolves, third seed in the conference, thus lost the home field advantage against the Mavericks, fifth, but in these playoffs they have shown that they feel much more comfortable away from home, as they demonstrated on Sunday by eliminating the champions Denver at home Nuggets.
Minnesota, which will host the second this Friday, has won five of the six games played so far away from the Target Center.
The winner of this series will face the Indiana Pacers or the Boston Celtics for the ring, who on Tuesday scored their first victory in the Eastern Final.
Changing roles
Kyrie Irving was the star of the first half in Minneapolis. The controversial point guard, who in these playoffs averaged just 6 points in the first two quarters, this time reached 24 with an almost infallible series of 11-14 in field goals.
A key figure in LeBron James’ Cavaliers ring in 2016, Irving took command of the Mavericks from the beginning as the most experienced player at this point in the postseason.
“It started very strong. Without him, we would possibly be down 20 at halftime,” Doncic acknowledged. “I helped him in the second half. This time we changed roles.”
Led by their star pairing, Dallas’ attack flowed in Minneapolis but the Timberwolves were not far behind.
Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota’s great secret weapon for these playoffs, went to the locker room with 19 points, converting 5 of his 6 triples.
The effectiveness that the tall forward has shown lately compensated for the weak start of Edwards and Towns.
The game went to halftime with only three points separating the Timberwolves (62-59) and continued to advance evenly even after a 13-0 run in the final quarter by Dallas, with seven straight points from Doncic.
Edwards appeared for the first time in the game to stop the bleeding and the final stretch led to an exciting exchange of baskets in which the talent of the Mavericks stars prevailed.
2024-05-23 10:00:07
#pace #Doncic #Mavericks #dismantle #defense #NBA
