33 points for one, 30 for the other: the Dallas Mavericks were carried by their two stars, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, last night during the first round of the Western Conference finals, won at the Minnesota Timberwolves (108-105).
THE MAVS DUET TONIGHT!
🔵 Luka Doncic : 33 PTS, 6 REB, 8 AST, 3 STL
🔵 Kyrie Irving : 30 PTS, 4 REB, 4 ASTDallas leads 1-0
Next match on the night of Friday to Saturday, 2:30 a.m. pic.twitter.com/hmss0aVSb7— NBA France (@NBAFRANCE) May 23, 2024
“The first matches of the series are very important, we paid to learn,” relishes Luka Doncic. But it’s only one match, there are 3 others to win. » The NBA play-offs are in fact played as a best of seven games, and Dallas has not always shown consistency this season. The only consistency the Mavericks find in their behavior away from home: already five victories away from Texas this season in the final phase.
The two leaders of the team shared the roles well: Kyrie Irving was sparkling in the first half, and his teammate then took over. “I knew that a lot of players on our team were going to be nervous because it was their first conference finals, and that I was going to have to step up and be aggressive,” explains the Dallas point guard.
“Kyrie is amazing”
“Kyrie is incredible,” relishes Doncic. He was at 24 points at halftime, I mainly tried to help him, and then we reversed the roles a little, even if I have to do a better job, adapt more effectively to the opposing defense. » In the last quarter, the Slovenian scored 5 baskets (in 8 attempts), including two three-point successes which proved important for his team.
Opposite, Minnesota could not count on as much efficiency from its leaders. Anthony Edwards missed a lot (37% success), lost three important balls and did not always make the right choices. Rudy Gobert also displays a fairly discreet statistics sheet (12 points, 7 rebounds), just like Karl-Anthony Towns (16 points, 7 rebounds). The team’s top scorer? Jaden McDaniels, with 24 points but who was especially happy with three points in the first quarter (4/4). “We tried to attract Rudy (Gobert) as far away from the circle as possible because we know how dominant he is defensively, he was once again voted best defender of the year,” analyzes Kyrie Irving, before prophesy: “They will come back more motivated for the second match, but we will be ready. »
“3 to go.”
Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic remain locked in after taking a 1-0 series lead in Minnesota!
Game 2: Friday, 8:30pm/et on TNT 🍿 pic.twitter.com/NijJ8KFaYQ
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2024
“We are the underdogs and we will take on this role with pleasure,” said Jason Kidd, the Dallas coach. We didn’t play very well but sometimes you have to know how to win like that. And everyone in the locker room is like that. Everyone laughs at individual statistics but only thinks about one thing: winning. » And winning is easier when the individual stats follow…
