Luka Dončić had a 20-point first quarter on his way to a career-high 36 points this postseason, and the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-103 on Thursday night to advance to the Western Conference finals in five games.
Kyrie Irving also scored 36 points for the Mavericks, who built a 29-point halftime lead on 61% shooting to deflate the once-energetic crowd before most fans got up for their first snack break. The Mavs went up by as many as 36 points in the third quarter as they held off the Timberwolves offense.
The Mavs, who were the fifth seed in the West, have a full week to rest before the NBA Finals begin June 6 in Boston for the franchise’s first appearance since winning the championship in 2011. The Celtics will have had ten days between games after that. Beating Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals.
Anthony Edwards scored 28 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 28 points and 12 rebounds for the third-seeded Wolves, who met their matchup with the defense duo of Dončić and Irving after stifling Phoenix in a first-round upset and then dethroning the defense. champion Denver in a seven-game series.
Irving improved to 15-1 in his career in closeout games in the playoffs.
Dončić set a defiant tone by starting 4 for 4 and hitting rainbows from 28 and 31 feet as he turned to talk trash to the fans on the field with every swing, often with a sly smile. He drained a 32-footer later in the first quarter as the Mavs closed on a 17-1 spurt, a run that pushed them to 28-5 in nine minutes.
It was Dončić’s second 20-point quarter of his postseason career, following a 21-point fourth quarter in the 2022 Western Conference finals loss to Golden State.
Dončić, who went 14 for 22 and grabbed 10 rebounds, and his savvy sidekick Irving, who has had a championship ring with Cleveland since 2016, were the superior stars in this series as this Wolves team found its first taste of a sustained postseason run. a bitter – but perhaps ultimately salutary – situation.
Although he waved his arms confidently and persistently at the referees almost every time the whistle went wrong, the 25-year-old Dončić played with unwavering confidence and unflappable joy from start to finish. While he was taunted by the fans with a “Flopper!” singing as he shot free throws in the third quarter, Dončić smiled and mockingly said the words along with them.
Edwards, despite reaching the 25-point mark for the 15th time in 27 career playoff games, struggled to find his rhythm among all the doubles teams. Wolves, for all their progress this season, were reminded that they are yet to mount a championship attack despite his dynamic skills and clutch mentality.
They had several hair-raising possessions in the decisive first half, with the coaches struggling to find a group that could play in sync with each other.
As the final seconds of the second quarter ticked away, Edwards drove down the lane and kicked the ball to the corner to Kyle Anderson, who swung the ball back to Towns on the wing and failed to find a look he liked. He went back to Anderson, who tried to close and let the shot clock run out on him.
PJ Washington, who had 12 points, flexed his arms to celebrate yet another suffocating Mavs defensive run.
The Mavs got 7-foot-2 rookie Dereck Lively II back from the sprained neck that kept him out of the previous game, restoring the complete rim-protection duo with Daniel Gafford, which helped them disrupt Rudy Gobert in the post and just about everyone else who tried to attack the basket.
Gafford had 11 points and nine rebounds, and Lively added nine points and eight rebounds.