Luka Dončić scored a game-high 33 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a Game 1 road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, who got 24 from Jaden McDaniels in the loss.
The Minnesota Timberwolves returned home to Target Center on Wednesday night after their loyal supporters enjoyed 72 hours to take in every possible pro-Wolves tweet, podcast, article, TikTok highlight tape, Instagram reel, and any other piece of content reminding them of reality: the Wolves f***ing did it. 20 years to do the day they last punched their ticket to the Western Conference Finals — May 19, 2004 — the Timberwolves did it again, in Game 7, securing their spot in the NBA’s Final Four in historic fashion.
Now, Luka Doničić, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks stand in their path, but the Wolves are armed with home-court advantage, a crowd more confident than ever, and a group of players who believe in each other as much as any we’ve seen in recent memory.
Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch said pregame that while his group took time to gel after undergoing seismic changes two summers ago, the same could be said for the Mavs, who formed their new star duo at that time. Finch sung their praises pregame, explaining the pair’s chemistry is at an all-time high, and the group around them — now with trade deadline acquisitions P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford together — accentuates their stars very well.
Minnesota began this one with a very clear objective of playing through Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 62 points the last time he matched up with Washington (then a member of the Charlotte Hornets). Anthony Edwards had multiple opportunities to attack, but instead got the ball to Towns in hopes his All-Star teammate would find a rhythm early, as KAT did in Games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals. While Towns started 1/3, two of them were good looks, and it showed some of Dallas’s defensive hand — they want KAT to put the ball on the deck and hurt them on the drive. The problem for the Mavs is that Gafford isn’t a good enough rim protector to consistently challenge Towns inside; but we’ll see how that changes over the course of the series.
Dallas, meanwhile made a point to spam Dončić/Gafford and Dončić/Washington pick-and-roll in the middle of the floor. Luka did a good job of using his shoulders to knock McDaniels off his spot, but Jaden did an equally good job of fighting over screens and contesting shots. McDaniels on the other end of the floor knocked three straight 3-pointers to open up a 15-8 Wolves lead through the first half of the opening frame.
THAT’S 3 THREES FOR 3️⃣. pic.twitter.com/aTvc1O1SPQ
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 23, 2024
Irving caught fire after Dončić finished picking on McDaniels, scoring 12 of the next 18 for Dallas, including an and-1 to take a 22-21 Mavericks lead at the 2:24 mark. The eight-time All-Start got most of it done in the mid-range and in the floater zone, picking on Conley and Wolves bigs on switches, as well as flying up the floor in transition and punishing crossmatches.
Minnesota scored fine throughout the first quarter and mostly generated good looks. Edwards got involved with five points and three assists, headlined by setting up two of McDaniels’ three triples. But their scoring burst came from an unlikely source…
Kyle Anderson checked in and kickstarted a 12-4 run to close the quarter by scoring seven straight points for Minnesota in just 1:06 of game time, going shot-for-shot with different Mavs players. His teammates rode that wave to the end of the frame, as Naz Reid scored a tough transition take through contact and then stole it from Luka in the back-court, which turned into an Edwards triple.
7 QUICK PTS FROM SLOWMO. pic.twitter.com/cY7oHy0LTb
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 23, 2024
The Wolves led 33-27 after one quarter, thanks to shooting 6/11 from beyond the arc (54.5%) and dominating the minutes Dončić played on the court; Luka was a -14 in the first quarter, while Dallas won the minutes he sat 11-5. Entering the WCF, Dallas lineups with Luka on the bench had a -21.7 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass. McDaniels led the Wolves with nine and Irving led Dallas with 13.
Finch and Associate Head Coach Micah Nori played with fire by leaving both Towns and Edwards off the floor to start the second quarter, rolling with a lineup of Mike Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, McDaniels, Reid and Gobert. They predictably struggled to score, but McDaniels bailed them out with a 3-pointer and transition layup, enough to keep Dončić and the Mavs at bay before Towns re-entered at the 9:04 mark of the quarter. Dallas, meanwhile, played a 10-man rotation as Dante Exum and Tim Hardaway Jr. saw unexpected action early in the period.
Once Gobert exited, the Mavs continued to get into the paint at will, finishing hotly contested and open looks inside alike. Dallas started 15/19 (78.9%) from inside the free throw line, which helped them cut into the Minnesota lead despite starting 2/11 from deep. Dončić was an important part of that, starting 5/7 from 2 with tough finishes on McDaniels and Edwards.
Jaden McDaniels since the start of Game 6:
• +41 in 81 minutes
• 58 points
• 20/25 FG
• 10/12 2PT | 10/13 3PT | 8/9 FT
• 11 rebounds
• 2 assists
• 3 blocks
• 3 stealsAmazing run from Slim at the most important point of the seasonpic.twitter.com/Neq69t6a1B
— Jack Borman (@jrborman13) May 23, 2024
But the Wolves found their offensive rhythm behind a pair of 3-pointers from Reid and Towns that were created by excellent ball playmaking from Slow-Mo in the middle of the floor. Anderson was handling the point guard duties in a lineup with Edwards, McDaniels, Reid and Towns, a very fun offensive unit. Edwards then drove the baseline to set up McDaniels’ fifth 3-pointer of the half, before Minnesota scored on back-to-back put-backs from Towns and McDaniels to keep answering the Dallas punches, namely on crazy layups from Kyrie in transition.
Watch Ant here. Crashing hard from up top when Luka is switched against him, gets the offensive rebound.
Every single Wolves player has been crashing the glass repeatedly against Luka to force him to box out and tire him out. pic.twitter.com/uRbUOA9Hu9
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) May 23, 2024
After Edwards secured an offensive rebound off a Reid missed free throw and drew a foul of his own (making both), followed by a 3 with 32.1 seconds left in the half to extend the lead to 62-54, the Wolves put forth another disastrous close to the half. Irving made a transition layup, before Edwards with 5.0 seconds left inexplicably turned it over for a second time off a bad pass. Kyrie, who played like he had a speed boost activated all half, jetted past the defense to finish yet another ridiculous layup over McDaniels, who also fouled him.
Instead of having the opportunity to close out the half with at worst a six-point lead, Minnesota again tripped over themselves in a pivotal moment at home. It had to have been frustrating for the Timberwolves, who shot 11/25 (44.0%) from 3 and got a combined 30 points from McDaniels and Anderson while also holding Dallas to just 2/13 (15.4%) from 3. But… they did lead 62-59 at halftime.
McDaniels led the Wolves with a playoff career-high scoring half 19 points on 7/9 shooting (5/6 on 3s), while Edwards (13 points, eight rebounds and five assists) and Anderson (11 points on 5/8 shooting) joined him in double figures. Towns struggled to find his shot yet again at home, putting up seven points and connecting on only three of his nine shots.
Irving led the Mavs with a game-high 24 points on 11/14 shooting (all 11 makes from 2), while Dončić added 14 points on 6/14 shooting to go along with five assists. Kyrie’s 24 is more than he had in any game in the Western Conference Semifinals. Dallas destroyed Minnesota in the paint, doubling them up 44-22. The Mavericks hilariously shot 22/28 (78.6%) in the paint, including 11/15 (73.3%) in the short mid-range area (4-14 feet).
The Mavericks continued that paint domination into the third quarter, opening the second half with a pair of lobs to Gafford, who was very quiet in the first half. The ex-Washington Wizards big man also added a score off a beautiful dump-off feed from Irving to give him six quick points in the first three minutes after scoring just two all first half.
Mavericks scores in the third quarter:
• Dunk
• Dunk
• Layup
• DunkDallas is now out-scoring Minnesota 52-28 in the paint on a ridiculous 26/34 (76.5%) shooting.
Wolves have to find a way to protect the rim before the Mavs inevitably start making 3s at an average rate
— Jack Borman (@jrborman13) May 23, 2024
When Dallas did miss on their 2s, they rebounded five of their first 12 misses (41.7% OREB rate), often resulting in inopportune put-backs that killed momentum.
On the other end, the Wolves matched the Mavs’ scoring inside with a pair of dunks and a layup. But Edwards passivity on the perimeter was certainly concerning. Instead of playing off the catch and attacking quickly against Irving or Jones Jr., he invited screens (and a second defender) to him, but didn’t throw passes that were 1) hard enough or 2) accurate enough to make Dallas pay for that coverage.
So, the Timberwolves started playing through other players. Conley made a triple in pick-and-roll with Gobert to end his 0/5 start from 3, before McDaniels attacked off the catch, forced a big to step up, and dropped off a pass for a Gobert dunk. Then, Towns kept his big man partner involved with a little 4/5 pick-and-roll alley-oop.
However, when Towns and McDaniels left the floor, Minnesota had a lineup of NAW/Edwards/Anderson/Reid/Gobert out there that couldn’t buy a basket. They missed their first four shots, while Dallas generated open corner 3s and finally saw Josh Green knock one down after starting 2/18 from distance. But the Wolves defense clamped down from there, holding Dallas to just 1/4 shooting with two turnovers, and led 83-82 after three quarters as a result.
McDaniels and Anderson did an excellent job on Dončić, holding him to four points on 1/4 shooting in the frame, while Edwards held Irving to just two points on 1/3 shooting.
After he drained a beautiful right corner 3 off a feed from Edwards late in the third, Reid continued that with a left slot three to open the fourth quarter scoring. McDaniels continued the game of his life, adding his sixth 3-pointer to extend the Wolves lead to five, giving the defense some breathing room to work with.
Naz Reid block ➡️ Naz Reid three pic.twitter.com/xszDhZoAB4
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 23, 2024
Those were huge buckets for the Timberwolves’ offense considering both Edwards and Towns sat, while Dončić and Irving started the fourth quarter. That came back to bite the Wolves, though, as poor spacing cratered the subsequent three trips, and Dončić took full advantage with three straight scores of his own, fueling a personal 7-0 run that put the Mavs back in front 91-89 with 9:07 to play.
Getting Edwards and Towns back in the game didn’t help, unfortunately. Minnesota turned it over on two of the first three possessions with their stars back in, and the Wolves let a 7-0 run become a 13-0 run after a drive from Jones Jr., a put-back dunk from Lively and a pair of Dončić free throws.
But Edwards responded with a major straight-on 3-pointer that re-ignited a pretty stunned crowd. As he generally finds a way to, Dončić put pressure on the officials to earn another pair free throws by flopping. The officials let them play after that, which became advantage Minnesota.
KAT knocks down the HUGE triple pic.twitter.com/ROdlfrmMHQ
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 23, 2024
The Wolves put together four straight stops and scored three times, capped by Gobert lob dunk from KAT and a Towns 3-pointer from Canada to retake a 99-98 lead with 4:39 lead. After starting 4/15 from the floor, the four-time All-Star scored or assisted on the seven crucial points to fuel a 10-1 run.
YESSIRSKI. pic.twitter.com/iyQvvI27xM
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 23, 2024
Minnesota did an excellent job of funneling Dallas handlers into the teeth of their defense, where Gobert and Towns contested shots nicely without fouling and the team as a whole rebounded well during the run. But a back-breaking offensive rebound in traffic from Lively resulted in a Dončić step-back 3 with a hand right in his face, answering a banger 3 from Ant on the other end to cut it to one.
After trading misses and turnovers, Dallas made Minnesota pay for their over-aggressive high-wall coverage, making the extra pass to Washington for a corner 3 to take a 2-point lead. Marc Davis then wiped away a Towns put-back dunk for offensive basket interference, much to the frustration of the home crowd.
Dončić then came up big, knocking away a lob from Conley to Gobert that could’ve tied it at 104 with just over a minute to go, before draining a tough step-back mid-ranger over McDaniels to essentially win the game for Dallas. After a drawn out free throw game and a scare from Conley (getting fouled on a 3-pointer, but making just two), Dallas stole Game 1 108-105.
Minnesota let a five-point lead and a four-point lead slip at different points of the fourth quarter, a difficult pill to swallow considering how dominant their defense has been late in games and how well they’ve closed games at home. Now, they no longer have home-court advantage for the remainder of the series.
Dončić led all scorers with 33 points on 12/26 shooting to go along with eight assists and six boards, while Irving joined him with 30 points, making 12 of his 23 shots. Lively II was tremendous, delivering nine points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and excellent rim protection all night long. Only two other Mavericks were in double figures, as Dallas’s “others” scored just 45 points. Outside of Dončić, the Mavericks shot just 3/15 (20%) from 3.
McDaniels paced the Wolves with 24 points and six triples (as many as the entire Mavs team), while Edwards and Towns combined for just 35 points on 12/36 shooting (33.3%). Ant did record his first career playoff double-double, collecting 11 rebounds and also dishing out eight assists. Minnesota also got great production from its bench, as Reid and Anderson joined forces to score 26 of the 28 bench points.
This story will be updated throughout the night after coach and player media availabilities.
Key Takeaways
A Tale of Two Duos
Entering this series, Dončić and Irving had scored 580 of the Mavs’ 1,278 playoff points (45.4%), while Edwards and Towns produced 525 of the Wolves’ 1,192 points (44.0%). Given how heavy of a load each respective team’s star tandem has had to carry to this point, you had to wonder which one would let the weight slow them down first.
Edwards and Towns succumbed first on Wednesday night, producing their third-lowest-scoring output of the playoffs to this point with just 35 points on 12/36 shooting (33.3%); they shot 5/15 on 2s and 7/21 on 3s, clearly timid about attacking Lively in the paint. (They scored 27 in Game 2 of the opening-round series against the Phoenix Suns and 33 in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Denver Nuggets.)
Dončić and Irving, meanwhile, scored a combined 63 points on 24/49 shooting (49.0%), led by a scary impressive 21/36 from 2 (58.3%) considering how difficult their 2-point attempts were throughout the game. Their 63 points is the third-highest total they’ve combined for in the playoffs thus far; the other four in the top-five all came against the Clippers in Round 1. The Mavs’ star back-court has played together just twice against the Wolves, but have a combined 132 points in those outings, a number that has to come down quickly if Minnesota wants to tie this series at one on Friday.
The bottom line is even if the Wolves get 50 points from McDaniels, Reid and Anderson again, the stars losing the scoring battle 63-35 points is not going to cut it.
Edwards postgame admitted to being tired during the game, citing Irving scoring multiple transition layups off of made baskets. That is a somewhat troubling sign considering these Western Conference Finals games are every other day for the whole series. However, If Irving and Dončić take a combined 49 shots and each play north of 40 minutes in all of these games, it is fair to wonder how long they can continue to play efficient basketball.
Anthony Edwards when asked if the energy put into Game 7 in Denver impacted their energy in Game 1 tonight:
“Yeah, for sure. Y’all can see it, we was a step behind everybody, especially myself. Kyrie got a transition layup from when I think we scored and he just outran me. I was…
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) May 23, 2024
The Mavericks’ stars traded roles in this one, as Irving — normally the closer — scored 24 of his 30 in the first half, while Dončić — usually the tone-setter early — scored 14 of his 33 points in the final frame.
Minnesota did a good job of keeping Irving away from the middle of the floor in the second half, forcing him to isolate on the baseline and attack from the slots into gap help; doing that from the jump will be an important objective in Game 2 and beyond.
As for Dončić, you simply have to tip your cap. The Wolves played him straight up with McDaniels, switched Edwards onto him, blitzed him during the Towns-at-the-5 minutes, and even threw zone defense at the First Team All-NBA selection. Dončić took some tough shots all throughout the game, but still scored 33 points and registered a 2.00 assist-to-turnover ratio. While it is easy to presume he may miss more of those moving forward, performances like tonight are why he is a five-time First Team All-NBA player. He does this regularly, just like Nikola Jokić.
Dallas Dominates in the Paint on Both Ends
If anyone deserves a game-ball tonight beyond the Mavs’ two stars, it’s rookie center Dereck Lively II, who has played like a poised veteran throughout Dallas’s run and did so again in Game 1. The Wolves had zero interest in attacking lively Lively was on the floor, as the Mavericks’ shell defense was tremendous in their rotations on the perimeter and effectively clogged driving lanes with their length and activity. Lively, who was a game-high +19, also did a good job mixing up when he dropped versus stayed attached to Gobert at the level of the screen, creating some confusion for Timberwolves’ ball-handlers in pick-and-roll situations, which made it difficult for Edwards to get comfortable making skip passes that were projected to be a major factor in this series.
The result was a massive gap in paint scoring efficiency; Dallas scored 62 of their 108 points in the paint on 31/49 shooting (63.3%), while Minnesota mustered just 38 points and connected on only 19 of their 36 shots in the lane (52.8%). Instead, the Wolves got up a season-high 49 3-point attempts; 3s accounted for 55.1% of Minnesota’s total shot diet, also a season-high. The Timberwolves drained 18 of them — a great number compared to the Mavericks’ six — but they will need to more consistently scheme ways to get into the paint for the rest of the series to create a more sustainable offensive attack.
With that said, Towns let it rip from beyond the arc nine times, a great number independent of how often Minnesota gets into the paint. He’ll shoot it better than 2/9 moving forward, as we’ve seen throughout these playoffs.
Though the Wolves’ initial point of attack defense was strong on the primary action, Dallas on the other end did a fantastic job of playing behind the double teams and extra attention Minnesota brought to Luka and Kyrie on the perimeter, getting into the paint at will. The Mavericks would’ve had more than 21 assists if it weren’t for how many straight line drives the Wolves allowed as a result of slow, tired close-outs and a lack of hustle getting back in transition and semi-transition off makes.
What was especially problematic for Minnesota, though, was that Dallas rebounded 32.5% of their missed 2-point shots. Of those eight offensive rebounds, three went for put-backs, while a very key Lively rebound in traffic enabled Dončić to make a clutch 3 to cut a four-point lead down to one with 3:14 to go, which was the beginning of the end for the Wolves. Dallas rebounded four of their 12 fourth quarter misses, something that Minnesota can’t allow considering the caliber of closers Dončić and Irving are; if you give them second chances, they’re going to make you pay, and Minnesota found out the hard way tonight.
Is Confident Role Players a Sign of Things to Come?
Finch said pregame that this was going to be an important series for Anderson, whose presence on the floor felt very much like a “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole” situation. That changed for the Western Conference Finals, as his length, strength and size as a defender at 6-foot-9, 230 pounds is going to be important in slowing down Dončić while McDaniels rests. But it was his offense that especially shined in Game 1.
Anderson was aggressive early, scoring seven quick points as a result of finding the soft spot in the Mavs’ zone and drop coverages in the middle of the floor. Not only that, but he played a long stretch in the second quarter as the primary ball-handler, creating a pair of corner 3s from Towns and Reid on back-to-back possessions. The best part was that none of Slow-Mo’s production felt flukey. He was at his best playing in lineups surrounded by four shooters (something we all know he can do!) while helping to hold Dončić to 3/8 shooting in the second quarter, a win. While you would think playing Anderson and McDaniels together, with Jaden shifting onto Kyrie, is a win for the Wolves’ defense, Irving torched McDaniels in these minutes as part of an 11-point second quarter on 5/5 shooting. Speed kills, and it certainly applies to McDaniels, who has struggled against lightning quick guards throughout his career.
But Slow-Mo kicking McDaniels off Dončić could help conserve some of the 23-year-old forward’s energy to impact the game as a scorer. Jaden was tremendous en route to a 24-point night, his third consecutive game of scoring at least 20 points. Before Game 7, Jaden had never scored 20+ in back-to-back games, but he has now accomplished that feat twice in three outings.
McDaniels’ scoring was buoyed by a 6/9 shooting night from deep, as he made his first four. But it was how he put the ball through the hoop that was particularly eye-catching. The former University of Washington star didn’t take a single bad 3, instead opting to put the ball on the deck and make Dončić defend him off the bounce. That worked well for the Wolves, as Jaden added three scores at the rim, including a put-back, and dished out three assists, too. He missed his three mid-range attempts, but McDaniels will make more of those if he is able to consistently create the same quality of looks.
Most importantly, Slim did everything confidently. He appeared to be in complete control of his game, whether it was shooting, attacking, or crashing the offensive glass. While some may think he may not get 15 shot attempts again in this series, I’d argue he should. Edwards and Towns got up 36 shots, while Gobert and Conley added 15 of their own — those all feel about right. That left 23 for the bench, which once again got very little from NAW, who shot 0/4 from 3 and extended his consecutive missed 3s streak to nine. If Alexander-Walker is going to continue to struggle offensively, that makes McDaniels’ emergence even more important.
Although Minnesota can’t bank on McDaniels continuing to score at this rate, it does feel safe to say you can put him down for at least 15 per game over the course of the series if he maintains this confidence on that end of the floor. If he can do that, and the Wolves’ coaching staff can scheme up some better ways for their stars to score easy baskets, Minnesota will be fine moving forward.
Rotation
Up Next
The Timberwolves and Mavericks will run it back for Game 2 at Target Center on Friday night. Fans can watch the 7:30 PM CT tip on TNT.