DALLAS — A popular saying for the playoffs is that a series doesn’t become interesting until each team loses one at home.
For the Dallas Mavericks, the chance to finish a sweep of the Minnesota Timberwolves ended with a 105-100 loss in Game 4, their first loss at American Airlines Center since Game 4 of the second round series against Oklahoma City.
The Game 4 outcome echoed the sentiment for how close this series has been, despite Dallas’ chance to end things in the fewest number of games possible.
The largest margin of victory in the series has been by just nine points, with two spectacular endings in the others giving the advantage to Dallas in one possession games.
While close on the scoreboard, Game 4 did finally give the Mavs a taste of their own medicine when it comes to hanging around the entire game, but not being able to close the game or series out in crunch time after making that their calling card throughout these playoffs.
The Wolves now return to Minnesota to continue their puncher’s chance at extending the series. A home loss for each team means that there’s now some intrigue in seeing how this series plays out. Will Minnesota’s win give them life to do something no other team down 3-0 has ever done? Or will Dallas take the punch and come back angry and ready to close things out on their way to Boston?
Both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving had games below their potential in the potential clincher that went awry, but Irving shooting 33% from the field really stung Dallas. The Mavericks can’t afford their star second option, who is averaging 42% on 3-pointers, going one-for-six from deep and looking out of pace.
A bit hotter shooting from Irving likely gives Dallas the game and the series. The solace for Dallas is Irving had averaged nearly 28 points per contest prior to his off-night and is one of the great playoff performers in league history.
For extra motivation, Kyrie’s perfect streak in elimination games was finally put to rest, and the Boston fanbase is already celebrating the potential opportunity to beat him if Dallas wraps things up.
While Doncic added another clutch shot in the fourth to his highlight reel, too little time remained for the Mavs to complete another comeback. Now Doncic will be looking to add a game that sends him to the NBA Finals for the first time in his young career to his mixtape.
While Game 4 featured his worst shooting of the series, he is still averaging 31.5 ppg in the conference finals. While the shots weren’t falling as usual, the effort was there. Doncic had 15 total rebounds and 10 assists in the close loss.
Game 5 will come on the road for Dallas, presenting something extra to watch out for. Being away from home has been activating a not-so-secret weapon that opposing fan bases can’t help but feed into: Doncic absolutely gets better when he’s hated. He absorbs the boos and vitriol like a Dragonball character, unleashing it back on his enemy tenfold.
Just look back at the Oklahoma City series where the Thunder felt the wrath caused by their own fans or following the Game 2 victory in Minnesota where Doncic implored anyone within earshot to leave the building after sinking the dagger shot to win the game.
If the Mavs close it out in Minneapolis, the television production trucks will need to be ready with the delay to catch any bombs unleashed.
For all of the blame given to Irving and Doncic for Dallas being unable to close things out at home and produce the sweep, there wasn’t much help from the rest of the rotation besides Derrick Jones Jr., who was an efficient two-for-three from deep and the only starter who had a positive plus/minus at +3.
P.J Washington went 3 for 13. Maxi Kleber had just two points in his return to the lineup, and Daniel Gafford exhausted himself from filling the minutes in the paint. Dwight Powell contributed as much as Dereck Lively II, which is to say nothing as Lively was inactive due to injury. The Mavs will hope to get Lively back in the fold following his Game 3 neck injury as they sorely missed the rookie who shares minutes with Gafford.
It was expected that Minnesota would bring a fight to avoid elimination in Dallas and the Mavericks got their best bolt. Anthony Edwards had been feeling the heat all series for looking gassed and delivered a 29 point-9 assist-10 rebound effort. Karl-Anthony Towns was finally seen, shooting 80% from deep while scoring 25.
Minnesota again has to put up their best effort to extend their season and defend their home court, but they are still very much on the edge of the cliff. Dallas shot 42.0% from the field and 35.0% from beyond the arc with substandard performances from most of their key contributors and still only lost by five points.
Kyrie Irving now knows what it’s like to lose a potential series clincher and Luka Doncic has still never celebrated a conference championship, but the star backcourt duo will have another shot at rectifying those points with another matchup from the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Do you think the Mavericks will avoid a Game 6 and head to the NBA Finals? Share your predictions with Irvin on X (formerly Twitter) @Twittirv.
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