Sports Writing (United States), February 13. Kyrie Irving made his debut in front of his new home crowd, having made his debut away from Dallas last week with 36 points, including 26 in the fourth period, but the Mavericks woke up late and succumbed to Minnesota Anthony Edwards’ Timberwolves (121-124). .
Anthony Edwards was Wolves’ top scorer with 32 points, 5 rebounds and one assist. French center Rudy Gobert had a double-double of 21 points, 14 rebounds and an assist while Jaden McDaniels had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.
Mike Conley and coming off the bench Kyle Anderson added 12 points each and Naz Reid, also coming off the bench, added 10 points.
For those in Dallas, the recently incorporated Irving added 36 points, including 26 in the final quarter, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a shot. Doncic scored a double-double of 33 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal.
Christian Wood had a sensational second set in which he added 18 points for a total of 25 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
It was the second game in which they coincided with the jersey of Dallas Irving and Doncic since the first was transferred to the Texas team from the Brooklyn Nets.
EDWARDS, CONLEY AND GOBERT SPEAK UP
Wolves have just acquired Conley from the Utah Jazz, where he was Gobert’s teammate for three seasons, and in Minnesota they expect the pair to get along like they started early in the game. Monday against Dallas.
A well-targeted pass from Conley helped Gobert hold on to the rim before Doncic leveled it at 13 midway through the first quarter.
The three All-stars of this season playing Monday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Edwards, Doncic and Irving, tried to win in a match again tied at 15 and 17, but Wolves did better.
Edward scored 12 points and Doncic 10 in the first set, which ended with the visitors 10 points clear (23-33).
Two straight 3-pointers from Theo Piston and an Irving-assisted alley-oop dunk from Wood took the Wolves lead.
A Wood who had come off the bench on a spectacular run hitting him with triples and free throws adjusted the score to 40-41, but Gobert and McDaniels, with dunks and half-range shots, again led the way. wolves.
Some timid Irving and Doncic passed the ball at undefined times, while Edwards reached his 20 points two minutes before reaching the break.
Sounding the buzzer for the first half, a three-pointer from Wood, who scored 18 points in the second quarter, left the lead at 54-65.
Putting on nearly all of the paint and despite long-range errors throughout the game, Wolves escaped with a 20-point lead in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter, in which the visitors had 26 points delay below.
IRVING AND SO LATE AWAKENING
Doncic began looking for more Wood than his new star partner, Irving, in an effort to save the day.
The Slovenian scored his first hat-trick of the game (from six attempts) a minute and a half after the end of the third quarter, in which he scored 13 points, added 28 and briefly eased the humiliation that some Timberwolves unstoppable inflicted on the Texans (82-100). .
The final quarter started with five points within half a minute from Irving, who finally came into the game and gave the Mavericks some air and hope, cutting Wolves’ lead to 10 with almost 9 minutes to play.
Irving, without Doncic on the track, scored 15 points in less than 4 minutes of the last quarter. The Slovenian entered and Irving continued to put in a bomb, a hat-trick, from start to kitchen, to reduce the sale of Wolves to 8 points with 4 minutes remaining (108-118).
Doncic’s 3-pointer cut the gap to 5 minutes with three minutes remaining and the crowd at the American Airlines Center in Dallas went wild.
A three-pointer from Irving with 28 seconds remaining put the Texans within 3 points, but despite the 26 points the Melbourne-born American scored alone in the fourth quarter, the visitors managed to prevail (121-124).