Kyrie Irving scored 35 points on 13-for-23 shooting as the Dallas Mavericks held on for a 120-114 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
Luka Doncic finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and nine assists for Dallas, which earned its second victory in as many nights. P.J. Washington had 17 points to go along with eight rebounds, and Daniel Gafford added 14 points.
Anthony Edwards scored 37 points on 12-for-20 shooting to lead Minnesota, which had a two-game winning streak end. Julius Randle finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Naz Reid contributed 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
The Timberwolves committed 20 turnovers, twice as many as Dallas committed.
Minnesota trailed 99-87 after Gafford made a tip shot with 8:37 left.
The Timberwolves responded by scoring 20 of the next 30 points to pull within 109-107 with 4:04 to play. Rudy Gobert pulled down an offensive rebound, drew a foul on a putback attempt and made two free throws to cut the deficit to two.
Moments later, Irving buried a 3-pointer to increase Dallas’ edge to 112-107.
Doncic built the lead to eight points with a 3-pointer from 32 feet with 1:04 left. He hoisted a shot from near the logo as the shot clock approached zero.
Edwards hit a 3-pointer to bring Minnesota within 118-114 with 26 seconds left, but Dallas held off the Timberwolves’ rally from there.
The Mavericks led 93-82 at the end of the third quarter.
Edwards hit a floating jump shot to cut the Timberwolves’ deficit to 74-73 with 5:45 to go in the third.
Dallas closed the period on a 19-9 run to grab a double-digit lead. Spencer Dinwiddie and Quentin Grimes started the surge with consecutive 3-pointers.
The Mavericks led 61-59 at the half. Both teams shot better than 50 percent before the break, and Edwards had 24 points — all of which he scored in the first quarter.
The Timberwolves led by as many as 10 points in the first half, as Reid drained a 3-pointer to put Minnesota on top 42-32 with 8:46 to go.
Dallas answered with a 29-17 run to grab a two-point lead. Gafford finished the first-half scoring with a go-ahead layup with 43.8 seconds remaining.
–Field Level Media