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Tim MacMahon, ESPN workforce editor
MINNEAPOLIS — Closer to his 32-foot-long dagger waved around the Internet, Luka Doncic glared at the Goal Heart population and shouted a profane reminder to no one in particular.
“That’s what I do,” Doncic roared and then the shot he launched from the same half-court shield of the Minnesota Timberwolves stretched the Dallas Mavericks’ lead to eight points with 1:04 left in their 120-114 victory on Tuesday. evening.
It was certainly once something noticeable on a regular basis. Building on the efforts through Doncic highlighted the Mavs’ five-game victory over the Timberwolves in ending the season’s Western Convention finals.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Mavs educator Jason Kidd said. “He loves the opportunity to win the game. He’s not afraid, he stepped up and made a great shot.”
Name this as a sequel. The most memorable event of the Mavs’ run to the NBA Finals in late spring took place at the very end of the Goal Center courtyard, when Doncic danced off his dribble before hitting a Game 2-winning step-back 3-pointer. .Four-time defensive player of the game Rudy Gobert.
Doncic celebrated that shot by loudly informing Gobert that the big guy couldn’t block it, throwing out some expletives with his trash message, though he later joked that he was speaking Slovenian.
Doncic slammed this dagger into Timberwolves barricade Nickeil Alexander-Walker and used the occasion to respond to a fan who expressed his hardened feelings for him throughout the game.
“I’ve heard a lot of things. They really like me here,” Doncic said with dry wit and then with his efficiency of 27 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists. “You know, last year was fun. It was a great time in my career and in my life, so it was fun to be back here.”
According to ESPN Research, in the Western finals, Dallas became the first team in play-by-play time (since 1997-98) to eliminate a 3-0 design rule despite trailing by five minutes in the last quarter. in each of those video games. The Mavs provided the Timberwolves with a painful reminder of their extreme skill in the first meeting between these teams this season.
As happened in the playoffs, Kyrie Irving co-starred with Doncic I’m Sick down the stretch. The Wolves did not lead down the stretch, but Minnesota reduced a Mavs lead that was 11 points entering the fourth quarter to a one-possession margin on four occasions in the final four minutes.
The Mavs responded with a bucket on each date: a layup from Irving, an alley-oop from Doncic to PJ Washington, an Irving three-pointer off the dribble and a turnaround from Doncic and then they attacked Gobert in a closeout.
The Mavs scored 21 points in the final 7:15, when Doncic and Irving combined for 16.
“It’s just time to win,” said Irving, who scored 25 of his team’s 35 points in the second half. “I knew we needed to create some separation in the game to continue to build on that trust, and it worked well for us. But we know that [Minnesota] It will be a little different when we play them each time. They’re going to make a little adjustment here and there. And in the future, we will see them quite frequently.”
Some other similarity with the end of the season’s Western finals: Doncic suffered pain in his right knee. He came out with 70 seconds left in the second quarter, limping toward the attic, and then Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels inadvertently hit him from behind with a power play.
Doncic started the second half again. His knee, once sprained for many playoffs, was bandaged. He proved it with a sequence of jogs, jumps, jumps and defensive slides in the final minutes of halftime.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter, when Doncic led all scorers with 11 points, that he got going. He had a slow start to the season and then missed all of training camp and the preseason due to a bruise on his left calf. He is shooting better at 36.4% from the field and 26.8% from 3-point range for the 3-1 Mavs.
Doncic was 10 of 27 from the field and missed his first seven 3-pointers Tuesday night, a drought he ended with his 32-foot dagger.
“I don’t know how I can make those shots and not normal shots,” Doncic said. “I don’t know how I do it. At the end of the day, I just have to shake off the rust. I’ll be back. I didn’t play the entire preseason, so I need some time. But we got the win. That’s the only thing that matters.”
