The defeat series of the Dallas Mavericks (1-10) continues. At the Minnesota Timberwolves (6-3) Dirk Nowitzki and Co. to take the next smack. The Mavs have nothing against Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. The young stars of the Timberwolves lead their team to the 112:99 victory (BOXSCORE).
After the Mavericks’ last match against the Pelicans’ twin towers, head coach Rick Carlisle sent Salah Mejri to the court that night to keep Karl-Anthony Towns in check. However, this experiment came to an abrupt end after a good three and a half minutes, when the Tunisian had to step on the bench again with foul problems.
Afterwards, Dallas tried to defend the zone for a short time, but the Wolves and especially the well-connected Andrew Wiggins (13 points in the first quarter) were not bothered by that. Minnesota set off for the first time at the end of the first leg with a 14:5 race. In the second quarter, the Timberwolves expanded their lead to 16 points thanks to the strong bank.
Although Dallas, led by the strong Harrison Barnes (17 points, 8/13 FG, 4 rebounds), fought his way up to 6 points, but with one or the other monster slam Wiggins and Co. always the right answer. In the end, Dallas had absolutely nothing to oppose the duo.
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Wiggins, who scored a total of 23 points, dropping 9 of his 14 attempts from the field, led the Timberwolves to a 28-point lead in the middle of the third quarter. The game was thus decided, also thanks to the dominant appearance of Towns. The Big Man scored 31 points (11/18 FG), collected 12 rebounds, scored 3 blocks and pocketed 2 threes. Overall, Minnesota scored a strong 54.4 percent from the field.
Apart from Barnes, only Devin Harris (15) and J. J. Barea (14 points, 6 assists) from the bank – attractive services for the Mavs. Thanks to Dennis Smith, who scored most of his 18 points in garbage time, Dallas even managed to reach 13 points. However, this was only a matter of cosmetics for results. Dirk Nowitzki contributed 7 points (3/8 FG) and 3 rebounds, Maxi Kleber scored 4 points (2/4 FG), 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 22 minutes. For the first time since December 2012, the Timberwolves have thus achieved a series of four consecutive victories. For the Mavs, on the other hand, it was their tenth defeat of the season.
Wolves vs. Mavericks: Click here for the BOXSCORE!
Kalr-Anthony Towns. No doubt, Wiggins would have deserved the same honor. The center filled even more categories of the boxing score than Wiggins. Especially in the Defense, Towns was regularly present – despite or maybe because of the criticism at the beginning of the season. He also convinced with his work on the boards and, of course, his strong and above all variable openers.
Wesley Matthews. At the shooting guard of the Mavericks the litter simply didn’t want to fall that night. Among his 10 attempts out of the field, a whole 8 tickets cheated. So Matthews didn’t really help the Mavs with lean 5 points. Its plus/minus value of -20 underscored the weak performance.
As Mejri was on the floor for only 4 minutes due to his problems with foul in the first half of the game, the defensive problems of the Mavs in the zone did not change at all compared to the previous games. So it’s no wonder that Head Coach Tom Thibodeau instructed his team to keep on looking for the way into the Zone. Towns and wiggins had a lot of freedom in the Painted Area, which they knew how to use for some crashing dunks. In the zone, the Timberwolves reached 50 points (Mavs: 44).