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Edwards Outduels Irving, but Mavericks Tame Timberwolves

Anthony Edwards and Kyrie Irving had a spectacular scoring showdown on Tuesday night, and when the dust cleared Edwards won the individual battle 37-35 but Irving's Dallas Mavericks beat Edwards' Minnesota Timberwolves, 120-114. The Mavericks improved to 3-1, while the Timberwolves dropped to 2-2. This was the first meeting this season between last season's Western Conference Finals combatants. The Mavericks dominated the 2024 Western Conference Finals 4-1, and the result of this game was not different even though the margin was much closer. 

Irving shot 13-23 from the field (including 6-8 from beyond the arc) while contributing five assists and four rebounds. He had just one turnover. Irving is an excellent player who had a great game, but the way that TNT's Stan Van Gundy consistently gushes about Irving is bizarre. Contrary to Van Gundy's assertion, Irving is not the best guard in the NBA, and Irving is not even the best guard on his own team: Luka Doncic is the best guard in Dallas and the NBA right now, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander not far behind. Jalen Brunson is better than Irving, as are Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker, to name just three players who deservedly received more All-NBA Team votes than Irving did last season. Irving made the All-NBA Team just three times in his first 13 seasons, he has never been selected to the All-NBA First Team, and he earned Second Team honors just once--five years ago. Irving has turned out to be a good fit as Doncic's sidekick, but there is a perplexing tendency for some commentators to sound like raving fan boys when they compare Irving to other players.

Doncic filled up the boxscore (24 points, game-high eight assists, eight rebounds), but he shot just 10-27 from the field (including 1-8 on three pointers). P.J. Washington is a solid third option (17 points, eight rebounds), Daniel Gafford chipped in 14 points on 6-6 field goal shooting, and Dereck Lively II only scored four points, but he had a game-high tying nine rebounds. Klay Thompson had a quiet game (seven points and one assist in 30 minutes).

Edwards shot 12-20 from the field (including 7-13 from three point range), but he shot just 6-12 from the free throw line. He had six rebounds, three assists, and a game-high tying five turnovers. Julius Randle--acquired from the Knicks with Donte DiVincenzo in an offseason trade for Karl-Anthony Towns--added 20 points, seven rebounds, and a team-high seven assists. Randle has scored at least 20 points in three straight games after notching just 16 points in his Minnesota season opener. Naz Reid scored 14 points off of the bench, and he grabbed a game-high tying nine rebounds, but he also had a game-high tying five turnovers.

Edwards scored 24 first quarter points on 8-10 field goal shooting (including 6-8 from three point range), setting a career-high for any quarter and breaking the Target Center record for points in any quarter. Edwards is now tied with Chauncey Billups for the second highest scoring quarter in franchise history, trailing only Karl-Anthony Towns (32 points in the third quarter of his 60 point game versus the San Antonio Spurs on March 14, 2022). Edwards is a wondrous scorer who has both a smooth shooting stroke and the athletic ability to acrobatically finish in the paint. Instead of comparing him to Michael Jordan, we should just appreciate him for how great he is in his own right.

Fueled by Edwards' scoring explosion, the Timberwolves led 34-26 at the end of the first stanza--but Edwards scored zero points on 0-1 field goal shooting in the second quarter as the Mavericks outscored the Timberwolves 35-25 to lead 61-59 at intermission. Irving sizzled in the third quarter with 16 points on 6-10 field goal shooting, and the Mavericks won the third quarter 32-23 to push their advantage to 93-82 heading into the final stanza. Irving and the Mavericks cooled off in the final 12 minutes, but they held on to claim the win.

The Mavericks' one-two punch of Doncic and Irving is extremely difficult to match up with, particularly with some combination of Thompson, Washington, or Gafford providing supplemental scoring; the Mavericks look like a better team this season both on paper and in terms of the eye test, and that is saying a lot considering their strong 2024 playoff run. In contrast, the Timberwolves have their work cut out for them to repeat their 2024 playoff performance. The Timberwolves physically overpowered teams last season--at least until they ran into the Mavericks in the playoffs--but without Towns they are smaller and they are more reliant on 2024 Sixth Man of the Year Reid to provide scoring and rebounding; it is too soon to say that the trade made the Timberwolves worse, but I am not convinced that the trade made them better.

Labels: Anthony Edwards, Dallas Mavericks, Julius Randle, Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic, Minnesota Timberwolves

posted by David Friedman @ 1:35 AM

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