The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of the Western Conferencee Finals, winning 124-103. Luka Doncic scored 36 points with 10 rebounds and five assists. Kyrie Irving also scored 36 points while chipping in four rebounds and five assists. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 28 in defeat for the Timberwolves. The Mavericks head on to the NBA Finals, starting June 6th.
Luka Doncic came ready to play scoring his first 10 points just three minutes into the game. The Wolves responded with strong efforts from their big men; both Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert scored at the rim. Gobert and Derrick Jones Jr. picked up technical fouls in a post-play shuffle. The Wolves tied things at 18, but Dallas answered with back-to-back dunks from Dereck Lively and P.J. Washington. Doncic was not messing around in this game, as he connected on a logo three and a spinning three in semi-transition to give him 20 points in under 10 minutes. Dallas allowed just four points in the last six minutes of the first and took a 35-19 lead after one quarter.
The Mavericks continued to pour it on in the second with Doncic on the bench. The lead grew to as many as 23 before the Wolves finally started to score. Minnesota’s baskets in the lane were very difficult to come by as multiple Dallas defenders met any Timberwolf in the lane or at the rim. The game slowed in the middle of the frame, with many called fouls and discussions with officials. Dallas rebuilt the lead to 20 before Lively went down after taking a nasty hit to the head from Naz Reid on a fast break. Dallas continued to lean on the Wolves with threes from Kyrie Irving and Doncic to grow the lead to 29 before ending the half. Dallas lead 69-40 after two quarters.
Down 29, the Wolves came out firing… only so did the Mavericks. Dallas grew the lead to as many as 36 points before Minnesota finally found some bearing midway in the quarter. Towns got going some, forcing the issue at the rim and hitting a three. Doncic in particular took his foot off the gas some and the Wolves cut the lead down to 23. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the quarter with Dallas taking a 97-73 lead into the last frame.
The last quarter was largely about Dallas maintaining a reasonable lead and getting out of the game without any injuries. The Wolves would close the lead to nearly 20, only for Dallas to hit a big shot. The Mavericks held on to that lead until the three-minute mark, when Minnesota raised the white flag and sent in bench players. The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-103. The Mavericks beat the Wolves 4-1 and head to the NBA Finals where they will meet the Boston Celtics, starting June 6th.
The Dallas Mavericks are that good
There’s plenty of analysis one could gather from this game. Hopefully, our team at Mavs Moneyball does just that. I want to take a moment, just a moment, to re-iterate how good this team is, and how special they are. There’s going to be a lot of prognostication in the next week or so before the NBA Finals, but it’s important to remember how Dallas got here.
The Mavericks were the constant underdog, beating the 4-seed Los Angeles Clippers in six games, beating the 1-seed Oklahoma City Thunder in six games, and the 3-seed Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. That’s the teams with the fifth-best record, second-best record, and fourth-best record. Dallas has won NINE road playoff games.
None of this is an accident. None of this is shooting variance. None of this is the other team’s injuries. Dallas earned a spot in the NBA Finals because they are a great team. Professional commentators will find a means to say otherwise because teams don’t DO this. It NEVER happens. Go look at NBA history, teams outside the top three seeds in a given conference do not make it to the Finals often.
The Dallas Mavericks have a chance to do something special because they are that special. Now it’s time to go and take it.
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