DALLAS (AP) – Kyrie Irving was trying to get Luka Doncic a shot. The All-Star guard for the Dallas Mavericks was trying to do the same for his new teammate making his home debut.
Neither one of them got a shot off in the closing seconds, and the Mavs’ big comeback attempt came up short against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Man. I’m still trying to emotionally recover … still so raw,” Irving said. “Oh, man. I would have liked to at least get a shot up.”
Irving had the highest-scoring fourth quarter of his career, scoring 26 of his 36 points in the final 12 minutes yesterday. But he made a bad pass after stepping inside the three-point line on the final possession after Minnesota had thrown off the timing between him and Doncic by knocking the inbound pass into the backcourt. The Timberwolves nearly blew a 26-point lead but held on to win 124-121.
After Doncic tracked down the tipped inbound pass, he passed to Irving before crossing midcourt.
Irving pump-faked a three and passed back to Doncic, who almost immediately gave it back to him on a bounce pass before the final turnover. “Great stop. Guys wanted to play it out. Trust the defence in that moment,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Did a really good job of kind of disrupting their play, pressuring and denying the catch. Forced it out. It became a broken play.”
Doncic, who finished with 33 points, said it was a great defensive play at the end for the visitors.
“We didn’t get a clear shot, we just passed (to) each other, but I think it was a great defense,” Doncic said. “I was trying to get him a shot, he was trying to give me a shot, At the end, nobody got a shot, but he was going off.”
It was the second game Irving and Doncic played together. The Mavs have lost both, falling in overtime at Sacramento on Sunday night. Irving, acquired a week ago from the Brooklyn Nets, had played two road games for Dallas before that – both victories.
“I really wanted this win,” Irving said.
First-time All-Star guard Anthony Edwards scored 32 points and Rudy Gobert had 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves had their biggest lead at 89-63 on a long step-back jumper by Edwards midway through the third quarter.
Dallas had that deficit down to 107-97 with about nine minutes left after a 25-foot shot by Irving, who on their previous possession tipped in Josh Green’s miss of a reverse layup.
Irving, who made 11 of 12 shots in the fourth quarter, had a three in the final half-minute, soon after a turnover by Doncic.
There was a stretch a couple of minutes before that when Irving made a bounce pass to Theo Pinson, who missed the layup – but the newly acquired eight-time All-Star was there for the rebound and putback. Doncic added a three-pointer right after that.
“I’ve got to get a shot up, if anything, or allow Luca to have some space to get a shot and not turn the ball over in that situation,” Irving said of the closing seconds. “So it’s on me, just be smart in those situations. But if you look at the overall game, you know, I’m just grateful we were even in that position.”
Christian Wood added 24 points for the Mavericks.
He had 18 of those in the second quarter, including 13 in a row at one point.
Gobert was nine of nine from the field, and Jaden McDaniels was seven of eight while scoring 19 points.
