The Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Dallas Mavericks 99-105 this Wednesday, who lost Luka Doncic due to injury and were about to come back from 28 points down in the last quarter.
Doncic left the court in pain with 2:31 left before halftime with an apparent left calf strain. Dallas (19-11) was already trailing 38-51 at that point. For the Timberwolves (15-14), Anthony Edwards scored 26 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Julius Randle, born in Dallas and with his mother in the stands, scored 23 points, collected 10 rebounds and distributed 8 assists. Frenchman Rudy Gobert also finished with a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. The Timberwolves went up to +28 (62-90) with 1:23 left in the third quarter, a difference that seemed insurmountable for the Mavericks without Doncic.
But led by Kyrie Irving and with a 37-11 run, the Mavericks were only 2 down (99-101) with 1:05 remaining. With morale down, Dereck Lively II stole the ball from Edwards on the next play, which ended up in the hands of Irving with the opportunity to tie or take the lead.
For the Timberwolves (15-14), Anthony Edwards scored 26 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
But the Australian’s triple did not want to go in and Edwards made a basket that made it 99-103 with 19 seconds. Klay Thompson also missed the triple on the next attack, forcing Dallas to foul Randle, who made both of his free throws to make it 99-105. Irving scored 39 points in Dallas’ loss. Doncic made 14 before leaving the court and Klay Thompson made 12 with 4 triples.
Thompson became the fifth player with the most triples in NBA history (2,562), surpassing the legendary Reggie Miller. Leading that table is Stephen Curry (3,841) followed by James Harden (3,022), Ray Allen (2,973) and Damian Lillard (2,683). The Mavericks-Timberwolves was one of the 5 games that the NBA scheduled this year for Christmas Day, the most notable day of the basketball league’s regular season.
#Defeat #Mavericks #Doncics #injury #Timberwolves
