The Timberwolves and Dallas play tonight in Dallas, with the Mavericks leading the best-of-7 series 2-0. Staff writer Chris Hine reports live from the American Airlines Arena:
Stats and play-by-play from Game 3
8:09 p.m.: Wolves pull back at half, but Mavs lose a key player
Karl-Anthony Towns missed his first seven shots of the night and went 2-of-10 in the first half as the Wolves trailed Dallas 60-52 at halftime. Towns missed five of his three pointers.
But Dallas suffered a significant injury to its front line when Derek Lively left the game with a neck injury 8 minutes, 35 seconds into the second.
As Lively fell to the ground to recover, her head hit Townes’ knee, snapping her neck forward. Lively was on the floor for several moments during the timeout and needed help getting off the floor as she struggled to maintain her balance. He exited with six points on 3-for-3 shooting with three rebounds and is questionable to return.
Lively was 13-for-13 in the series before leaving; Earlier in the game, he took a Downs knee to the groin as the Wolves big man drove to the rim.
Mavs’ Luka Doncic and Rudy Gobert exchanged cheers after they got caught on a rebound and around a screen on consecutive plays late in the quarter. Doncic had a few words after hitting the game-winning three against Gobert in Game 2. In the first half, both teams faced unsuccessful challenges.
Edwards and Jaden McDaniels led the Wolves with 12 points apiece.
Dallas shot 54% from the field as Doncic led the way with 15.
7:33 p.m.: The Wolves go one after the other and Conley heads to the locker room
Before Sunday’s Game 3, Wolves coach Chris Finch said the message for Karl-Anthony Downs was to play slow, while Anthony Edwards needed to play quickly.
Edwards had nine first-quarter points, but Towns couldn’t get on track as Towns outscored Dallas 33-28.
Wolves point guard Mike Conley went to the locker room during the quarter; Despite a calf injury, he was playing. He came back shortly.
Edwards was 3-for-6 from the field, while Towns went 0-for-3 in the quarter. Luka Doncic had eight early points for Dallas.
Dallas came out with a bang in its own arena as the Mavericks hit their first three threes of the night, and Edwards got the Rockies started with one of two free throws after a turnover, a brick and a run.
Edwards hit his next two shots and the Wolves got three runs from Conley and Jaden McDaniels to pull within 15-13 with 6:01 left.
The Wolves got seven first-quarter points from McDaniels, who hit his mid-range jumper from about 10 feet, but the Wolves defense had little answer for the Mavericks offense on 11-of-19 shooting.
6:36pm tip-off approaches
Dallas starters are point guard Luka Doncic (playoff stats: 28.0 scoring, 9.4 rebounds, 9.3 assists), shooting guard Kyrie Irving (21.6 points, 5.4 assists), small forward Derrick Jones (10.1 points), power forward PJ Washington (13.9 points) and center Daniel Gafford (9.2 points, 5.7 rebounds). Center Derek Lively averaged 8.7 points off the bench.
For the Wolves, it’s point guard Mike Conley (11.4 points, 6.1 assists), shooting guard Anthony Edwards (27.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists), small forward Jaden McDaniels (12.5 points), power forward Karl-Anthony Towns (18.3 points). ). , 8.9 rebounds) and center Rudy Gobert (12.5 points, 10.5 rebounds). Nas Reed averaged 11.7 points off the bench.
The referees were Tony Brothers (Chairman), Ben Taylor and Curtis Blair. The last time they had the Wolves was Game 3 of the Denver series, which the Wolves lost at home.
The game airs on TNT with a tip schedule at 7 p.m
Morning shootaround recap: Anthony Edwards says he’ll be ultra-aggressive
One of Anthony Edwards’ defining characteristics on and off the court is the infectious joy with which he approaches every aspect of his life. No matter the circumstances, you’ll rarely find Edwards in a bad mood.
But after the first two games of the Western Conference finals, Edwards said he lost a little bit of his joy in playing basketball as he had some scoring struggles.
“I probably wasn’t having fun out there. In my face,” Edwards said in the shootaround before Game 3.
Edwards is 11-for-33 so far in the series and vowed to be more aggressive, attack the basket more and take more shots than he has so far in Game 3.
“You’re going to see tonight. It’s going to be a lot of shooting,” Edwards said. “… I’m going to be very aggressive. I’ve never taken more than 16 shots in every game. So, I’m going to be very aggressive coming out, for sure.”
Although the Wolves have lost two games at home, Edwards said the atmosphere around the team is still positive and upbeat.
“Everybody’s in a good mood, especially myself,” Edwards said. “We dropped two games. We gave them two games. We’re very confident.”
