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Doncic and Irving Dominate as Mavericks Humiliate Timberwolves to Advance to the NBA Finals

The Dallas Mavericks' one-two punch of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving delivered an early knockout blow to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and each finished with a game-high 36 points in Dallas' 124-103 win. The Mavericks closed out the Timberwolves in five games, clinching the series on the road and setting up an NBA Finals matchup with the Boston Celtics. Doncic shot 14-22 from the field, led Dallas with 10 rebounds, and tied Irving for team-high honors with five assists. Doncic earned the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP. Stephen Curry won the inaugural Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP in 2022, and Nikola Jokic won the 2023 Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP. Irving shot 14-27 from the field while also compiling five assists and four rebounds.

For much of this series, Minnesota's supporting cast played well enough while their two stars--Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns--delivered subpar performances. In this game, Edwards and Towns played well while their teammates disappeared. Edwards scored 28 points on 10-18 field goal shooting while grabbing nine rebounds and passing for a game-high six assists. Towns had 28 points on 9-20 field goal shooting while snaring a game-high 12 rebounds and not being whistled for a single foul after spending much of this series committing stupid fouls. Rudy Gobert had a quiet game (nine points, five rebounds, no blocked shots). No other Minnesota player had more than eight points or more than four rebounds. The usually steady Mike Conley scored seven points in just 21 minutes as he battled a recurring calf strain.

For a substantial portion of this game, the only suspense was whether the Timberwolves would outscore Doncic and Irving; in the first quarter, Doncic outscored the Timberwolves by himself, blistering the nets for 20 points on 8-11 field goal shooting while the Timberwolves could only muster 19 points on 8-26 (.308) field goal shooting. Dallas led 35-19, and if you listened closely you would have sworn that you heard someone say, "1, 2, 3, Cancun." The Timberwolves' body language screamed, "We would rather be anywhere else other than here trying to compete."

In the second quarter, Doncic seemingly said "Tag, you're it" to Irving, and Irving responded with 15 points on 5-5 field goal shooting.

Here are the first half scoring totals:

Doncic/Irving: 44 points on 17-27 field goal shooting.

Minnesota: 40 points on 15-44 field goal shooting.

Overall, Dallas led 69-44. "This is an embarrassing first half performance," TNT's Stan Van Gundy declared as the Minnesota crowd booed their listless Timberwolves.

During TNT's halftime show, Charles Barkley called out unnamed people on other networks who praised Minnesota's game four adjustments. "Adjust that," Barkley declared. Barkley is right that so-called adjustments are overrated by people who do not understand how to watch/analyze basketball, and I have made this point for years; in my recap of game two of the 2021 NBA Finals, I discussed at length ESPN's fascination with mythical adjustments:

Many of ESPN's talking heads have been obsessed for years with "in game adjustments" but Jeff Van Gundy is one of the few ESPN commentators who downplays such talk, perhaps because he is the only current ESPN commentator who has actually coached in the NBA Finals. During the 2010 NBA Finals, Van Gundy explained that playoff series are not decided by in game adjustments because "You are who you are by this time of the year and you have to go with your best stuff and expect them to go with their best stuff." During last night's telecast, Van Gundy made similar points, and after the game he mentioned that NBA games are often decided by one or two key plays, or simply by shots made/missed, and that there are not adjustments that can change those things.

Bill Russell refuted the in game adjustment nonsense years ago, cautioning, "You have to make adjustments that your team can make" and explaining, "When I played, when we had to make adjustments we would adjust not to what we did wrong but we would try to get back to what we did right and do that. That is the only way you can take control of the game," to which I added, "The idea that a coach can come up with something completely new between games--let alone during a 15 minute halftime break--is absurd and that is why San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich gives snarky answers when media members ask him stupid questions about what kind of adjustments he is going to make."

Unfortunately, many NBA commentators do not understand what they are watching, and are incapable of coming up with anything other than declaring that a team lost because that team's coach did not make the right adjustments. Stephen A. Smith repeats this tired refrain after almost every game, not realizing that his nickname is "Screamin' A", not "Strategy A" (though "Strategy F" would be an accurate assessment of what passes for analysis by him).

Perhaps when someone is paid millions of dollars per year to pose as an expert about something for which he does not have anything approaching expert level understanding there is pressure--self-imposed and/or from the bosses who sign those checks--to make bold statements and assertions.

The Timberwolves won game four because their stars outplayed the Mavericks' stars, and because overall Minnesota played with a very high energy level. The Mavericks routed the Timberwolves in game five because the Mavericks' stars outplayed the Timberwolves' stars, and because overall Minnesota played with a very low energy level. After game four, I wrote, "Game five will be very interesting, because the Timberwolves will show if they are satisfied just to avoid being swept, or if they are excited about the opportunity to win at home and put the pressure on the Mavericks to win game six in Dallas to avoid game seven in Minnesota."

The Timberwolves were quite content to just avoid being swept. Cue Keith Olbermann's catchphrase for such games: "Get a roll of stamps and mail it in." At some point in this series, the Timberwolves either decided that they could not beat the Mavericks four times or that it would take more effort to do so than they were willing to expend. That is not meant to take anything away from how well Dallas played, and how well Jason Kidd is coaching the Mavericks; the point is that the first four games of this series were close because these teams are evenly matched, while the fifth game was a blowout because Minnesota had checked out mentally and tapped out physically.

Doncic and Irving "only" combined for 18 third quarter points, so after 36 minutes the Timberwolves had outscored Dallas' dynamic duo 73-64--but the full game score was 97-73, Dallas.

The fourth quarter was, to borrow Marv Albert's famous description, "Extensive garbage time."

Although this game was not decided by "adjustments," it should be emphasized that Jason Kidd has done an excellent job coaching Dallas. His two star players respect him greatly--as they should--and Kidd shows his respect for them by not telling them what to do but simply noting what he would do if he were still playing. Kidd's court vision and basketball IQ are off the charts, and it is evident that Doncic and Kidd have both responded well to his patient guidance not only in terms of offensive decision making but also in terms of more sustained effort defensively.

The Irving redemption narrative is a popular talking point--as if playing basketball proficiently absolves Irving from his unrepentant antisemitism--but Doncic is not new to blowing out higher seeded opponents in closeout games: in 2022, Doncic led the Mavericks to a 123-90 rout over the number one seeded Phoenix Suns, and early in the second half of that game Doncic had outscored Phoenix 30-29 by himself, foreshadowing the treatment that he just gave to the Timberwolves. Doncic is like a mini Nikola Jokic: he plays at his own pace, he is an elite scorer, rebounder, and passer, and he uses strength and guile to make up for a lack of blazing speed. Irving provides wonderful complementary scoring and playmaking, but Doncic runs the show and sets the tone.

The NBA Finals start next Thursday, so there will be plenty of time to analyze Boston versus Dallas (and plenty of time for ESPN's "experts" to talk about the "adjustments" that each team should make). Many media members will hype up Irving's return to Boston and Kristaps Porzingis' return to Dallas, but the most significant story here is the top of the marquee showdown between Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum: which superstar and perennial MVP candidate will win his first NBA title?

Labels: Dallas Mavericks, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic, Minnesota Timberwolves

posted by David Friedman @ 2:28 AM

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