Luka Doncic on Wednesday led a strong finish for the Dallas Mavericks, swishing crucial shots down the stretch, drawing a couple of fouls and even playing strong defense as his side won 108-105 over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals.
The Mavericks might not be the favorites in yet another series, but they stole home-court advantage from the Timberwolves with this promising start.
Doncic had 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, while Kyrie Irving scored 24 of his 30 in the first half.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Dallas had a 62-38 advantage in points in the paint to offset a six-for-25 shooting performance from deep.
“We made important ones,” said Doncic, who scored seven straight points over 63 seconds early in the fourth quarter to fuel a 13-0 run by the Mavericks for a 97-89 lead.
The Mavericks trailed 102-98 after a three-pointer by Anthony Edwards with 3 minutes, 37 seconds left, before an 8-0 run the Wolves did not stop until a tip-in with 10.5 seconds to go.
Photo: AFP
For the first time in six tries under coach Jason Kidd, the Mavericks won the first game of a playoff series.
The star power in this series is strong, and for the first night at least the Mavericks got what they needed from their leading duo while the Wolves largely struggled to run the offense around theirs.
“Terrible offense down the stretch: Bad shots, turnovers, no composure,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We’ve got to be better in clutch moments.”
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Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
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