Timberwolves-Mavericks: 5 things to watch in Game 5 with Minnesota showing signs of life

The Timberwolves ain’t dead yet; the Mavericks didn’t get rid of them.

After a 105-100 Game 4 win to stave off elimination at the hands of Dallas, here are a few things to keep an eye on as Minnesota once again tries to stay alive back at Target Center in Game 5 on Thursday:

Flipping the switch

After watching Luka Dončić cook with Jaden McDaniels as his primary defender in the first three games of the Western Conference finals, and Kyrie Irving move comfortably whether he had Anthony Edwards or Mike Conley on him, the Wolves shook up the matchups for a must-win Game 4 — Edwards on Dončić, McDaniels on Irving, Conley back on Derrick Jones Jr.

Anthony Edwards took on the assignment of guarding Luka Dončić in Game 4. (Photo by Tim Heitman/Getty Images)

Necessity, as Wolves head coach Chris Finch told it, was the mother of this particular invention.

“I mean, we were down 3-0. Just shuffling the deck,” Finch said, according to Wolves beat reporter Dane Moore. “Ant’s good on-ball, good at navigating screens. Maybe a little length on Kyrie could help. Obviously, length on Dončić hadn’t really been effective, hasn’t been bothering him as much. So we just tried something different.”

Different was good — for one night, at least, and maybe for more.

Dončić finished with a customarily gaudy stat line: 28 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, good for his sixth triple-double of these playoffs, one shy of Wilt Chamberlain for second place on the all-time list for most triple-doubles in a single postseason. (Nikola Jokić set the high-water mark last spring.) But it took him 21 shots to collect those 28 points, and he had a tougher time bulldozing the burlier Edwards — against whom he shot 4-for-14 in Game 4, according to NBA.com’s matchup data:

Irving, on the other hand, struggled to get much of anything going, managing just two field-goal attempts when he had McDaniels on him en route to 16 points on 6-for-18 shooting — his second-lowest field-goal percentage of this postseason, ahead of only Game 2 against Oklahoma City.

“He has a huge impact,” Irving said of the McDaniels matchup. “I mean, he is a 6-foot-9…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-05-30 14:25:45

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