Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving lead Mavericks to Game 1 WCF win: 3 plays that changed the course of the game

Ah, what a shame. Someone said Coach Jason Kidd deserved his team to win Game 1 of the playoffs. For the first time in six playoff series under Coach Kidd, the Mavericks won Game 1.

It was an exciting basketball game the entire game, with neither team ever trailing by double digits. The offense was more prominent in the first half than many, including myself, expected. Minnesota just had a tough Game 7 against the defending champions, but both teams boast elite defense. So it was a surprise to see both teams score around 60 points.

Read more: Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving lead Dallas Mavericks to victory over Minnesota Timberwolves

Kyrie Irving came out hot in the first half, scoring 24 points in the first half, a complete departure from what we’ve seen in the playoffs thus far. This is the second-most points in a first half of the playoffs in his career. After the match he said: Inside the NBA At TNT, he said he wanted to set the tone because he knew many of his teammates had never been in the position before and might be nervous.

Dallas couldn’t have won the game without Irving’s first half. They were content to hold Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards in check and let Jaden McDaniels and Kyle Anderson take the shots. McDaniels and Anderson combined for 30 points in the first half and led 62-59 at halftime. The Timberwolves were strong on 3-pointers, making 11 of 24 from three-point range in the first 24 minutes.

The defense started to pick up steam in the second half, with both teams combining for 17-of-45 shooting in the third quarter. Towns and Naz Reid started to chip away at their game, bolstering the offense and helping the Timberwolves take a one-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Luka Doncic was struggling at this point, scoring just 18 points and shooting 7-for-18 from the field, but things changed in the fourth quarter.

Dallas was losing by five points, but Luka Doncic had to wake up. Minnesota continued to drop coverage on screens with Gobert (more on this at the end) and Luka started eating it. This step-back free-throw line jumper started a personal 7-0 run by Doncic and a 13-0 run by the Mavericks to take control of the game.

Jaden McDaniels is a good defender, but he’s not strong enough to handle Doncic the entire game, and even though he has his arms outstretched in the contest, Doncic is able to shoot straight up and make the shot.

This was definitely the biggest call of the game. Mike Conley missed a 3-pointer and Karl-Anthony Towns made what looked like a clean putback dunk, but it was ruled offensive basket interference. Since he had less than two minutes left, the official automatically checked the call and did so immediately.

The replay seen on the broadcast is questionable. The basket interference call was certainly in favor of Dallas, and the fact that it was finalized so quickly leads me to believe it was the right call, but it was a really close call.

Instead of tying the game at 104 with 1:41 left, Dallas had a two-point lead.

Read more: Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic named to All-NBA First Team for fifth consecutive year

We’re looping these plays together. Please sue me. Fortunately, ringerKevin O’Connor happened to include them in the same tweet.

Doncic played great defense in the second half as well. He was probably told to let McDaniels and Kyle Anderson take shots in the first half, and those two would make Dallas pay. But Doncic stepped up his defense in the second half, and his first play, breaking down a lob attempt, stood out.

The first sequence is Doncic’s incredible defensive awareness knowing who has the ball and who is behind him. Minnesota allowed several lob passes to Rudy Gobert during the game, but Mike Conley was cowardly for much of the game. Doncic stunts towards Conley and retreats in time to block the lob pass.

On the ensuing offensive spree, Doncic used his size to distance himself from McDaniels and made a jump shot to extend the lead to four points with 49 seconds left, effectively sealing the game.

In the fourth quarter alone, Doncic had 15 points, three rebounds, two steals, and one block to lead the Mavericks to victory.

After committing an unnecessary foul on a 3-point shot attempt in the final seconds and surviving it, Dallas won 108-105. Minnesota is currently 2-4 in the playoffs when allowing 100 or more points.

Doncic and Kyrie Irving combined for 63 points on 24-of-49 shooting from the floor. The rest of the Mavericks all scored 43 points on 19-of-38 shooting from the floor. It was truly a role reversal for the two. We’ve seen Doncic start strong in the first half and Irving pick up the pace in the second half, but in this game it was the other way around.

Overall, Dallas shot just 6-of-25 from three, but dominated the paint with 62 paint points.

A lot of that is down to Minnesota’s drop coverage. Doncic and Irving are too good at the mid-range to get the shots off the field. Minnesota started to heavily attack screens as the game went on, and I expect they’ll do it more throughout the series.

Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns were largely held in check, combining for 35 points on just 12-of-36 shooting. Edwards became noticeably fatigued as the match continued. Minnesota spent so much energy trying to keep up with Irving that they may need to find a way to free him up defensively.

Despite Jaden McDaniels scoring 24 points and Dallas struggling with just three points, the Mavericks win thanks to Irving and Doncic’s offensive outburst and ability to limit Minnesota’s two biggest stars. I was able to do that. The Mavericks’ shooters will get better as they get used to the series, but they will have to continue playing a stifling defense.

Dallas should be happy that they found a way to win this game and will look to continue that momentum in Game 2 on Friday at 7:30 PM CST at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. will try.

Read more: Dallas Mavericks must continue to overcome Maxi Kleber’s absence against Minnesota Timberwolves

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