Dallas fought hard, but they couldn’t overcome the massive difference at the free-throw line.
The short-handed Dallas Mavericks welcomed the Minnesota Timberwolves back to the American Airlines Center on Wednesday night, as the Mavs were missing seven players: Luka Doncic, Dereck Lively II, Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Jaden Hardy, Dwight Powell, and Dante Exum. With that many players missing, it would be up to Kyrie Irving to try and lift the Mavs to an unlikely win.
Dallas had their 21st different starting lineup of the season, going with Kyrie Irving, Quentin Grimes, Olivier-Maxence Prosper, P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford as the first five. Minnesota started Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, and Rudy Gobert.
Kyrie Irving and P.J. Washington combined for the team’s first eight points, but it was an offensive struggle in this one early. By the first timeout midway through the quarter, it was an 8-8 ballgame with the teams shooting a combined 4/17 from the floor. Dallas seemed content with letting Julius Randle shoot, as he was coming off a 5-point, 2/13 shooting performance against the Grizzlies on Monday.
Minnesota went up 17-11 soon after that, getting some looks from Rudy Gobert early, but the Mavs responded with an 11-0 run to close out the quarter to lead 22-17 heading into the second. Young guys off the bench, like Brandon Williams, were giving them a much-needed spark, as they held the T-Wolves to 4/16 shooting in the first 12 minutes.
Dallas had a chance to stretch the lead to 10 early in the second quarter, but Spencer Dinwiddie refused to back on defense after he thought he got fouled, and that opened up a 10-4 spurt to get the Timberwolves back within two. The game would be tied at 36 a few possessions later after a timeout by Jason Kidd.
Maxi Kleber was showing some aggression, with eight early points off the bench, but Minnesota was still able to retake the lead to force another timeout by Jason Kidd, their second in less than two minutes. Dallas was trying to blitz Anthony Edwards on ball screens, but Edwards was generally getting around them faster than the blitz could take place, ending in either free throws or an open man under the basket. PJ Washington and Spencer Dinwiddie would help keep pace, but Minnesota took a 55-53 lead into halftime.
After a few back-and-forth minutes, with the lead bouncing between two and four to start the second half, Dallas finally tied the game again at 67 after a three-pointer from Quentin Grimes and six quick points from Kyrie Irving. Anthony Edwards was awake, though.
Edwards only scored eight points in the first half but had ten in the first seven-ish minutes of the second half as Minnesota opened up an 82-74 lead, its largest of the game. Dallas held them to just one made field goal the rest of the quarter, but the Wolves still led 86-82 heading into the final frame.
Minnesota hit back-to-back threes to start the fourth quarter, extending their lead to ten in the first minute. Offense was hard to come by for the Mavericks after the Wolves started sending multiple bodies at Kyrie Irving when he had the ball.
After five quick points from the Mavs, a 7-0 run from the Wolves opened the lead up to 12 on Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s second three-pointer of the quarter, forcing a timeout.
But just like the last time these two teams played in this building, the Wolves were having a hard time controlling the lead. An and-one by PJ Washington and a three-pointer by Kyrie Irving had the lead down to one with 5:30 to go.
Jaden McDaniels hit a three after that Dallas run, and Anthony Edwards got a second-chance layup to give them some cushion again. McDaniels converted an alley-oop a few possessions later to push the lead back up to eight with about 3:40 to play.
Dallas got it back down to five in the final two minutes before PJ Washington tipped in his own miss with a minute to go to bring it down to three. Anthony Edwards split a pair of free throws to push the lead to four; then Kyrie Irving hit a second-chance three-pointer to bring the game to one with 21.7 to go.
Mike Conley hit both free throws with 11 seconds to go, then Kyrie Irving missed a three over Anthony Edwards, and the Timberwolves would go on to win 115-114 after a late three from Irving with the game out of hand.
Minnesota dominated this game at the free-throw line, going 30/34 as a team compared to Dallas’ 16/19. That was easily the biggest difference in this game.
Kyrie Irving led all scorers with 36 points for the second straight game (and for the sixth straight time against the Timberwolves), followed closely by P.J. Washington’s 30 points. Daniel Gafford (14 points and 12 rebounds) and Maxi Kleber (10 points) were the only other Mavs in double figures.
Jaden McDaniels led the Timberwolves with 27 points and eight rebounds on 10/18 shooting. Anthony Edwards (21 points, even assists), Mike Conley (18 points), Julius Randle (16 points), Rudy Gobert (14 points, three blocks, 8/8 FT shooting), and Naz Reid (12 points) were all in double-figures.
Dallas has the second night of a back-to-back on Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, something that has become a hotly contested rivalry.
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