Minnesota prevailed 121-124 in the field of the Mavs
The 36 points of the ex from Brooklyn and Luka’s 33 were not enough for the home team
Kyrie Irving made his debut before his new audience at home, after making his debut away from Dallas last week, with 36 points, 26 of them in the fourth period, but the Mavericks woke up late and succumbed to the Minnesota Timberwolves by Anthony Edwards (121-124). Anthony Edwards was the top scorer for the Wolves with 32 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist. French center Rudy Gobert had a double double of 21 points, 14 rebounds and 1 assist while Jaden McDaniels had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Mike Conley and coming off the bench Kyle Anderson added 12 points each and Naz Reid, also coming off the bench, added 10 points.
For those of Dallas, the recently incorporated Irving added 36 points, 26 of them in the last quarter, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a shot. Doncic scored a double double of 33 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal. Christian Wood had a sensational second set in which he added 18 points for a total of 25 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. This was the second game in which they coincided wearing the jersey of Dallas Irving and Doncic since the first was transferred to the Texas team from the Brooklyn Nets.
Edwards, Conley and Gobert shine
The Wolves just acquired Conley from the Utah Jazz, where he was Gobert’s teammate for three seasons, and in Minnesota they expect the duo to bond as they began to kick off Monday’s game against Dallas. A well-aimed pass from Conley helped Gobert hang from the rim before Doncic tied it at 13 midway through the first quarter. The three All-stars of this season playing at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Monday, Edwards, Doncic and Irving, tried to prevail in a match that was tied again at 15 and 17, but the Wolves went better. Edward scored 12 points and Doncic 10 in the first quarter, which ended with the visitors with 10 points ahead (23-33).
Two consecutive 3-pointers by Theo Piston and an alley-oop dunk from Wood assisted by Irving cut the Wolves’ lead. A Wood who had come off the bench on a spectacular run hitting it from three pointers and free throws adjusted the score to 40-41, but Gobert and McDaniels, with dunks and midrange shots, once again led the Wolves. Some timid Irving and Doncic passed the ball at undefined moments, while Edwards reached his 20 points two minutes before reaching the break. Sounding the buzzer for the first half, a triple by Wood, who had 18 points in the second quarter, left the light on 54-65.
Irving and Doncic wake up late
Putting almost everything from the paint and despite the mistakes from long distance throughout the game, the Wolves escaped with a 20-point lead in the first two and a half minutes of the third set, in which the visitors were 26 points behind. below. Doncic began looking more for Wood than for his new star partner, Irving, in an attempt to salvage the situation. The Slovenian scored his first triple of the game (of six attempts) a minute and a half after the end of the third quarter, in which he scored 13 points, added 28 and briefly alleviated the humiliation that some Timberwolves unstoppables inflicted on the Texans (82-100).
The last quarter began with five points in half a minute from Irving, who finally entered the game and gave the Mavericks air and hope, reducing the Wolves’ lead to 10 with almost 9 minutes left to play. Irving, without Doncic on the track, scored 15 points in less than 4 minutes of the last quarter. The Slovenian entered and Irving continued to put it in, with a bomb, a triple, from the start to the kitchen, to reduce the sale of the Wolves to 8 points with 4 minutes remaining (108-118). Doncic’s 3-pointer cut the gap to 5 minutes with three minutes remaining and the crowd at the American Airlines Center in Dallas went wild. Another Irving three-pointer with 28 seconds to go brought the Texans within 3 points, but despite the 26 points that the Melbourne-born American scored alone in the fourth quarter, the visitors managed to win (121-124).