Minnesota Timberwolves 'Luka Doncic Stopper' Jaden McDaniels to Play vs. Dallas Mavs: 'You Can Feel Competitive Nature'

After being listed as questionable, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels is playing against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, and he has a track record of giving Luka Doncic all he can handle.

Dalton Trigg | Dec 14, 2023

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The Dallas Mavericks (15-8) take on the Western Conference's top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves (17-5) on Thursday night looking for their fifth consecutive win, which would be a new season high.

Dallas is coming off an exciting win over the LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, and Minnesota is coming off a tough loss to Zion Williamson's New Orleans Pelicans on Monday. Heading into this one, Wolves star Anthony Edwards and defensive-minded role player Jaden McDaniels were both listed as questionable, but both will suit up, meaning the Mavs will have to bring their A-game in order to pull out a win.

USATSI_19991541 — Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

As great of a player as Luka Doncic is, he has always struggled when playing against the Wolves, and McDaniel's length and relentless defensive pressure has played a big part in that. However, both players respect each other, and McDaniels spoke on what it's like to play against Doncic during his pregame media session.

"I just try and stay in front of him. I don’t really care how many moves you do, I’m just going to stay right there and just be annoying. I just try to do that. It’s hard, but I don’t know how I do it," McDaniels said. "You can feel that competitive nature when we play, but there ain’t no talking or [anything like] that. Just respecting each other."

Luka Doncic Reveals Stance on His Long-Term Mavs Future

In 13 games against the Wolves, Doncic averages 23.0 points on 42.6 percent shooting overall and 27.6 percent from deep. It's Doncic's second-lowest scoring average vs. a single team in his career, with the first being against the Chicago Bulls. With Doncic being in the best shape of his career and being on an MVP tear over the last four games, we'll see if this time around against Minnesota will be different.

Published Dec 14, 2023

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.