Bring Out the Brooms: Mavs One Win Away from Sweep
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 27 May 2024
Mavericks fans may not only be rolling out the barrels but also bringing out their brooms as Dallas comes one win of sweeping its Western Conference Finals series versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Back to their American Airlines Center arena after sweeping the opening two games in Minneapolis, the Mavs outlasted the Wolves, 116-107 for a 3-0 lead in the series.
Minnesota was able to hang on with the Mavs for three and three-fourth quarters of the game. But it has nothing left when Dallas stepped on the pedal for another strong finishing kick, pulling away in the final three minutes for the win.
The Wolves trailed in the first two quarters, 33-28 and 27-24 but rallied strongly in the third, 35-27 to break even, 87-all by the start of the final quarter.
Minnesota was able to even briefly take the lead in the early part of the fourth and managed to even the score going into the last one-fourth of the quarter.
These despite Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving pouring much of their team leading points in those periods as Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and the Twin Tower of Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert grimly fought on.
But after Kyle Anderson gave the Wolves their last taste of lead at 104-102, the Mavs rattled off a 7-1 run built around a triple by PJ Washington to regain control, 109-104.
The Wolves hit a free throw to make it 105-109 but then the Mavs unleashed another 7-2 salvo in the last two minutes for which Minnesota had but a last basket by Edwards to offer, enabling the Mavs to win the quarter, 29-20 and the game, 116-107.
Irving and Doncic accounted for six of the windup points.
It's difficult enough for the Wolves, or any other team for that matter, to play against two of the most prolific pointmakers in Doncic and Irving and yet they also have to contend with their supporting cast as Washington, Derrick Jones and Daniel Galford who again made their presence felt on this night.
The Wolves scored more points inside the paint 50 to 40 but the Mavs compensated with better field goal shooting 38 of 68, especially in the three-point country 14 of 28 as against Minnesota's 43 of 85 and 8 of 24.
Doncic and Irving scored 33 points each, more than half of the Mav's winning score. Washington and Jones supported them with 16 and 11 points respectively.
Edwards led the Wolves with 26 points followed by Mike Conley with 16 points, McDaniels with 15 points and Towns and Reid with 14 points each. Anderson added 10 points while Gobert managed 9 points.
The fourth game is scheduled again in Dallas on Wednesday
To avoid getting swept, the Minnesota coaching staff headed by Chris Finch has to find a way to limit one or the other or both and their supporting unit. Because preponderance on height and matching fire for fire obviously do not work as the past three games have shown.
Or else, the broom.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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