Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving put big-game experience on display as Mavericks stun Timberwolves

MINNEAPOLIS — This year’s version of the NBA’s Final Four features no recent champion. Nor does it feature a reigning or past Most Valuable Player, a statistical anomaly since the media began voting in 1981.

What it means is there’s opportunity around, and moments are waiting to be seized.

Luka Dončić has been close to an MVP and will soon break through, while Kyrie Irving has been a champion, but far enough removed to understand how finite these chances are.

That is what was on display early, and late, in the Western Conference finals opener at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Irving started off the evening by hushing a rousing Timberwolves crowd, and Dončić finished it — both with his usual (heroics) and the unusual.

The Dallas Mavericks stole Game 1 in their best-of-seven series against Minnesota Wednesday night with a 108-105 victory, winning a Game 1 for the first time in Jason Kidd’s tenure with the Mavericks as head coach.

Kidd still wants to impress upon anyone who’ll listen that his team is the underdog, but nobody’s buying it after that thievery. Both Dončić and Irving qualify as the players with the most big-game experience of anyone in the series, and it showed in spades.

Dončić dropped 15 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth, and Irving scored 24 of his 30 before halftime, preventing the Mavericks from being blown out as the Timberwolves rode the wave of emotion from their win over the Denver Nuggets.

“We would’ve been down 20 if he didn’t score so many points,” Dončić said. “Big time. I appreciate him keeping us in the game.”

They work in concert, while not falling into the dangerous “your turn, my turn” style two ball-dominant players can easily slip to. They’re learning to share the same space while not stepping on toes, and in Dončić’s case, he’s stepping forward in the moments that turn a good team into a great one — intercepting a lob pass intended for 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert with 1:09 left and the Timberwolves trailing by two.

Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić celebrate after winning Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. (Photo by Stephen…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-05-23 05:27:17

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