Dallas steals homecourt advantage with an outstanding road win
The Dallas Mavericks surprised the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road Wednesday night, winning game one, 108-105. Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 33 points, six rebounds, and eight assists. Jaden McDaniels led the Wolves in scoring with 24.
The teams opened with scoring from both sides; Doncic and Irving getting early baskets for both teams, with Karl-Anthony Towns, Mike Conley, and Anthony Edwards for the Wolves. Three made threes from Jaden McDaniels put Dallas down early only for Irving to have his best first quarter in the playoffs, where he scored 13 to give Dallas a brief lead. Dallas and Minnesota exchanged made baskets for several possessions, but in the final two minutes the Wolves went on a 10-2 run to take a 33-27 lead after one quarter.
Sloppy offense from Dallas predicated by intense Timberwolves defense resulted in Dallas falling behind by as many as nine points early in the frame. Kyle Anderson and McDaniels shooting nearly perfect from the field helped keep the Wolves ahead as the Mavericks went scoreless for nearly four minutes. Irving broke the seal with a transition lay-up and a Doncic and-one over Edwards followed by a spinning lay-up forced a Minnesota timeout at the 5:30 mark. The Wolves continued to shoot lights out from behind the arc, but Dallas managed to hang around with outstanding rim finishes from Irving and P.J. Washington. Irving finished a brilliant half with an and-one layup just before the half. Dallas trailed the Wolves, 62-59.
The Mavericks took their first lead since the opening quarter on an amazing Derrick Jones Jr. dunk which came from the Mavericks moving the ball in transition without many dribbles. That was preceded by Gafford making three straight Dallas baskets following penetration against the Wolves drop coverage. The Wolves took the lead right back through Gobert pick-and-roll dunks. The teams battled back and forth the remainder of the half, with Dallas stealing minutes playing some rarely used lineups. Dallas missed some key chances to take the lead with maddening turnovers in the final minutes and ended the quarter down one, 83-82.
Minnesota continued reigning threes, connecting on two early to expand their lead to five. Luka drilled back-to-back long jumpers to bring Dallas back within one, then hit a size-up three to give the Mavericks their first fourth-quarter lead. Dallas continued pushing after a timeout, expanding a 13-0 run before the Wolves hit their 16th three of the game to slow the bleeding. The Wolves rallied back with a 13-1 run of their own to take a four-point lead with three minutes remaining. Doncic answered with a crazy step back over Edwards to bring Dallas within one. A Washington retook the lead for Dallas with just under two minutes to go. A questionable basket interference call on Towns waived off a huge basket for Minnesota which would’ve tied the game. Doncic buried a short jumper to extend the lead to four. With 10 seconds left, the Wolves scored on a tip-in, but Irving buried clutch free throws to take the lead back to four. Josh Green committed an insane foul on a Conley three, but he missed the second attempt. Dallas walks away with a 1-0 series lead on a 108-105 victory.
Role reversal
In a huge change of pace, Kyrie Irving kept the Mavericks alive in the first quarter, scoring seemingly at will over various Timberwolves defenders. After months of seeing Irving feel his way through the first half, Kyrie pushed the pace in transition and attacked off of ball reversal to score in a variety of means. Along with the rest of Dallas, his threes weren’t falling tonight, so scoring 24 points from two-point range (and six more from the line) kept the Mavericks afloat during the three-point parade from Minnesota.
That allowed Doncic to be the guy who carried Dallas home in the fourth quarter, where he scored 15 of his 33, including a personal 7-0 run which helped Dallas take control of this game.
Threes versus points in the paint
The Mavericks’ defense walls off the paint, so we understand that the defense is going to surrender threes. The Wolves responded by hitting 18 total (54 points) compared to just six made threes for the Mavericks. That is +36 from distance from the Wolves.
Dallas responded by attacking the paint all night, outscoring Minnesota 62-38 in the lane. It’s rather amazing that the Mavericks pulled away with a win. Teams that shoot that well from three are really hard to beat.
The Mavericks made their free throws!
In a game decided by a mere basket, free throws ended up being key. Dallas shot 16-17, while the Wolves missed seven of their 18 attempts. After Dallas has been on the bad end of this specific statistic, it feels good to know the made free throws made the difference.
