'Missing the Mark': Cold-Shooting Mavs Blown Out By Timberwolves

Sometimes it's just simply not your night, and tonight definitely wasn't the Dallas Mavericks' night in Minnesota.

Dalton Trigg | Mar 25, 2022

With the NBA playoffs on the horizon, the Dallas Mavericks took on the Minnesota Timberwolves for the second time this week. This time, though, it was at Target Center instead of the cozy confines of American Airlines Center.

It's tough to beat a high-quality team two times in the same week – especially when that opposing team is desperately trying to avoid the Play-In Tournament – and the Mavs fell to the Timberwolves this time around, 116-95.

The loss drops Dallas to 45-29 while Minnesota improved to 43-32. The Mavs and Timberwolves ended their regular-season series in a 2-2 tie with each team defending home court every time.

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Luka Doncic led the way for Dallas, finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in 37 minutes. He shot 8-of-18 from the field and 5-of-11 from deep. Unfortunately for the Mavs, Doncic ended up receiving his 15th technical foul of the season. If Doncic gets one more technical foul, he'll be suspended for one game.

Although Doncic had a respectable statistical night, his supporting cast did not, as non-Luka Mavs shot 5-of-32 from deep in Minnesota. Dorian Finney-Smith, Reggie Bullock, Jalen Brunson and Maxi Kleber combined to go 3-of-25 from 3-point range. Kleber, who is in the midst of the worst shooting slump of his career, is 7-of-47 from deep since the All-Star break.

Dwight Powell, Jalen Brunson and Dorian Finney-Smith were the only other Mavericks to score double-digit points, finishing with 13, 11 and 11 respectively.

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All five starters and two bench players scored in double-figures for the Timberwolves, led by Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds while shooting 7-of-10 from the field.

Next up, the Mavs will attempt to bounce back at home on Sunday against the Utah Jazz, who just lost to the Charolette Hornets. Both Dallas and Utah are 45-29, so the winner of Sunday's matchup will have sole possession of the fourth-seed in the Western Conference standings.

Published Mar 25, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.