Dallas Basketball

Kyrie Irving's 26-Point 4th Quarter Not Enough As Mavs Fall to Timberwolves

Although Kyrie Irving got a loud ovation from the American Airlines Center crowd before Monday's game, the Dallas Mavericks weren't able to overcome a hot Minnesota Timberwolves squad. The first win for the Mavs' dynamic duo of Luka Doncic and Irving will have to wait for another day.

Dalton Trigg

Coming off a disappointing overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night, the Dallas Mavericks looked to capture their first win with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving playing together on Monday as they hosted the Minnesota Timberwolves at American Airlines Center.

Despite a 26-point outburst from Irving in the fourth quarter, the Mavs couldn't erase a 26-point deficit in what was ultimately a 124-121 loss. Down by three with 14 seconds remaining, Dallas had the ball but was unable to get off a game-tying attempt with Irving and Doncic passing the ball back-and-forth. Minnesota played as good of defense as it could've hoped for on the game's final sequence.

Irving finished with a game-high 36 points on 15-23 shooting, including 4-9 from deep, in his AAC debut. He also tallied five rebounds, six assists, two steals and one block in 39 minutes of action.

The home crowd was dead for most of the game, especially after the Mavs fell down big early, but Irving singlehandedly pumped live back into the arena with his stellar fourth-quarter performance. His 26 points in the final frame were the third-most in a quarter in franchise history behind only Luka Doncic (28) and Dirk Nowitzki (29).

Doncic, despite deferring to his new superstar teammate at the end of the game, finished with 33 points, 12 rebounds and six assists while shooting 10-20 from the field. After shooting just 2-9 on 3s in Saturday's loss, Doncic shot just 2-7 from deep on Monday.

With the loss, Dallas falls to 31-27 on the year, and Minnesota improves to 30-29 while also winning the season series against the Mavs, 2-1. That could come into play later on if there are any tiebreaker scenarios before the postseason.

Next up, the Mavs look to get back on track as they take on the Denver Nuggets on the road before getting a much-needed All-Star break. Doncic and Irving would certainly like to head into the break with their first win as a superstar duo.

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Dalton Trigg
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.

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