Kyrie Irving led the charge as the Mavs have won on back-to-back nights
The Dallas Mavericks (3-1) are making a bad habit of winning in spite of themselves here at the beginning of the 2024-25 season, but hey, they all count the same.
The Mavericks went into Minneapolis on Tuesday and outlasted the Timberwolves, 120-114 at the Target Center on the second night of the first back-to-back set of the season. The way the Mavs gained control of the game as the third quarter wore on, nearly gave it all back on a fourth-quarter Wolves’ run and put the game away in clutch time played like a deleted scenes package from the 2024 Western Conference Finals DVD box set.
When it became clear that Kyrie Irving would need to put the Mavs on his shoulders, he stepped up in a big way to lead the Mavs to victory down the stretch. Irving scored 25 of his team-high 35 points in the second half, before a hobbled but furious Luka Dončić put his own stank on the game’s final minutes to preserve the win. Dončić hit a game-sealing 3-pointer from darn near the Timberwolves logo with 1:04 left in the game and finished with 24 points, nine assists and eight rebounds on another tough shooting night.
P.J. Washington chipped in 17 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-13 shooting. Anthony Edwards hit the Mavs in the mouth for 24 of his game-high 37 points in the first quarter.
Ant marches early
Edwards was imbued with The Power Cosmic to start the game, and the Mavericks defense looked a step slow on possession after possession to get a hand in his face. He set a new career high in points in a quarter with 24 of the Wolves’ 34 points to start the game. Edwards’ 24-point performance in the first is the second-highest scoring output in a quarter in Timberwolves franchise history, behind only Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 32 in a quarter in 2022.
Edwards played like he had this game circled, following the Mavericks’ dismantling of the Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals. He’s been shooting more volume from 3-point range to start the 2024-25 season and had it on automatic from deep in the first quarter on Tuesday, connecting on a ridiculous 6-of-8 from 3-point range. Edwards made 3-pointers on three consecutive Minnesota possessions just four minutes into the action, then hit three more as the first quarter wound down and the Wolves started to build their early lead. The Mavs were hanging on for dear life, down 34-26 after one quarter.
Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images
Edwards sustained an injury late in the first and would score just one point in the next quarter and a half. He came alive in the fourth quarter as the Wolves made it close down the stretch and finished the game with a game-high 37 points. but shot just 6-of-12 from the free-throw line in the loss.
Key second-quarter Mavs run
Dallas chipped away as best it could in the second quarter, owning the paint while waiting out the Wolves’ hot start from the perimeter. The Mavs’ first significant run came about five minutes into the second quarter. It wasn’t loud, but it was key. Dončić started the run with a strong drive to the hoop with 6:39 left in the half. The Mavericks’ fortunes seemed to turn when Dončić made more of a decisive effort to score inside after missing his first three 3-point attempts of the game.
Washington rebounded Dončić’s third missed 3-ball wide open and in rhythm near the top of the key with just over five minutes left in the half and banged in his first 3-pointer of the game to bring the Mavs to within one, down 47-46. Then Dončić sucked in the Wolves’ defense on a drive the next time down the floor and found Dereck Lively II for a one-handed alley-oop jam that gave Dallas the lead back, 48-47, with 4:38 left in the second. It was an 11-3 run that gave the Mavericks their first lead of the game since there was 4:45 left in the first quarter.
Slow shooting starts have become the norm for Dončić in the first three games of the season, but this is somewhat understandable, as he didn’t have much of a preseason, after suffering a calf injury. Dallas led 61-59 at the half.
Luka had to battle
Late in the first half, as the lead seemed to trade hands each time down the floor, Dončić crumpled to the ground after banking in a quick shot in the lane on a broken play that put the Mavs up 59-57 with 1:17 before the break. It looked like a Wolves defender kneed Dončić in the back of his knee — almost like a dead-leg or Charley Horse.
He came back out to start the third quarter, but didn’t score at all in his third-quarter shift. It looked like his leg may have still been bothering him right out of halftime.
But he also had to battle through another tough shooting night. Just a night after shooting 5-of-22 in Monday’s 110-102 win over the Utah Jazz, Dončić connected on just 10-of-27 shot attempts against the Timberwolves. That dramatic 3-pointer with 1:04 left in the game was his first of the game — he went 1-of-8 from distance in the win.
Here comes the cavalry
Photo by David Berding/Getty Images
But unlike previous seasons, the Mavericks are built to win this year even on the occasional Dončić off-night. Irving asserted his dominance over the game as Dončić struggled throughout the third quarter, scoring a game-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting in the frame. He hit two big 3-balls and a running lay-in assisted by Spencer Dinwiddie in the final minute and a half of the third.
Quentin Grimes hit his first three 3-pointers in a Mavs uniform against the Wolves, and two of them came in that pivotal third quarter as well. His second of the quarter and third of the game put the Mavericks ahead 83-75 with 2:33 left in the third and came on Irving’s fifth assist of the game.
Dallas took a 93-82 lead into the fourth and held on for yet another clutch win against the Timberwolves.
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