Minnesota Timberwolves' Naz Reid Slams Door on Dallas Mavs' Win Streak: 'He Was The X-Factor'

After Dante Exum hit a career-best seven 3s against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, the Dallas Mavericks got a chance to see what that felt like on the opposing end, as Minnesota Timberwolves big man Naz Reid did the same to them on Thursday.

In the NBA, any player can go off on any given night. The Dallas Mavericks know this as well as anyone, as Dante Exum exploded for a career-high seven 3-pointers made in Tuesday's 127-125 win over the Los Angeles Lakers while being on a second night of a back-to-back.

Unfortunately for Dallas, it was on the other side of that coin at American Airlines Center on Thursday night against the top team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves three star players on their roster in Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, but reserve center Naz Reid shined the brightest, scoring a team-high 27 points while hitting a career-high seven 3s en route to snapping the Mavs' four-game win streak with a 119-101 blowout.

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Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

“They’re good in both ways – offense and defense," Mavs star Luka Doncic said of the Wolves. "They have an amazing team. Ant [Anthony Edwards] is one of the best in the league for sure. I think there was one x-factor. Naz Reid – he’s an amazing player and he hurt us today. He’s been hooping.”

On the season, Reid averages 13.4 points while shooting 50.0 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from deep. In 13 career games against the Mavs, Reid has shot 47.8 percent from deep, which is his fourth-highest percentage against any team in the league. So with that said, maybe his performance on Thursday shouldn't have come as a surprise, especially considering that Dallas was playing its third game in four nights.

Luka Doncic's 39-Point Night Not Enough as T-Wolves Snap Weary Mavs' Win Streak

"He's had a great year for them," Mavs head coach said of Reid. "Ever since he's been in Minnesota he's been playing extremely well. Coming off the bench, he can put it on the floor, he can get to the basket, he's a big that can handle it. As you saw in that first half – and for pretty much the game – he can shoot it. We talked about him before the game and at halftime [we said] we've got to keep him off the 3-point line, and we just didn't do a good job. We've got to look at getting better at that."

The Mavs now move on and look ahead to Saturday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers, a team they beat 125-112 just a week ago as Kyrie Irving went down with a heel contusion. Irving remains out, and if he can't return to action soon, the Mavs will hope to have more career nights from role players go their way instead of it being the other way around.


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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.