The Dallas Mavericks (7-5) had no stomach for the fight on Thursday, dropping an embarrassing 133-94 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (9-3) at Target Center. Bones Hyland led all scorers with 24 points off the Minnesota bench, while LaMelo Ball dropped 22 for the Wolves in just 25 minutes in the win.
Zaccharie Risacher led the Mavericks with 22 points off the bench in the loss.
Let’s not belabor the point. This was a straightforward ass-whipping. Here are some stats from the Mavericks’ no good, very
bad day at the office.
15-2: Lightning-quick Timberwolves run to end first quarter
If you blinked late in the first quarter, you may have missed the moment the Mavericks went from firmly in control to flailing. PJ Washington drove for a contested layup, and Naji Marshall followed that, the next time down, with a pair of free throws to extend the Mavs’ early lead to 24-19 as Flagg took his normal rest stretch on the bench.
From there, Bones Hyland and Ayo Dosunmu keyed a 15-2 run over the last 2:48 of the first. Dosunmu hit his first bucket of the game, a 3-pointer from the right wing with 1:38 left in the opening frame, to swing the Wolves back in front, 26-24. Then, after Marshall stopped the bleeding with another 2-for-2 trip to the line, Jaylen Clark banged in a last-second 3-ball of his own to extend Minnesota’s lead to 34-26.
The Mavs did not connect on a field goal in the final 3:34 of the quarter after Flagg went to the bench a minute before that. Dallas finished the first 9-0f-25 (36%) from the floor, while the Timberwolves shot a much healthier 12-of-22 (54.5%) to open the game.
22: Early Mavericks points off turnovers
The Mavericks scored 22 of their first 42 points off Minnesota turnovers on Thursday. That’s a full 52.8% of the points the Mavs scored over the first 19 minutes of the game that came off the Timberwolves’ nine turnovers.
Dallas got out and ran early in the second to battle back from what eventually bloomed into a 10-point hole. Flagg got into a passing lane for his first steal of the contest with seven minutes left in the half, which led to a ferocious dunk from Zaccharie Risacher that cut the Timberwolves’ lead to 43-42.
But Minnesota embarked on another 12-3 run from that point, and guess what they didn’t do during that run? If you guessed “turn the ball over,” you would be correct. The Mavs weren’t able to manufacture a whole lot of offense in the halfcourt throughout the first half. Dallas’ defense was the only thing fueling the team’s offense. Meanwhile, on the other end, The Wolves were pouring it on.
Minny shot 27-of-44 (61.4%) from the field in the first half, while the Mavs shot just 20-of-48 (41.7%). That disparity led to the Timberwolves’ swolen 67-52 lead at the break.
36-17: Third-quarter beatdown
A vibrant, colorful and above all, ridiculous rapid-fire discussion erupted in the MavsMoneyball Slack channel in the third quarter on Thursday, partially debating whether it was the Mavericks’ offense that failed the defense or the defense that called it a night early and left the offense on an island. Whichever way you lean, neither of these things can happen when you’re facing a bona fide early-season juggernaut like the Anthony Edwards-less Timberwolves. The Wolves came into the game with the NBA’s best defensive rating (105.1).
Flagg did nothing on the defensive end. Marshall one-upped him by beating his head against a wall on both ends of the floor. Someone tried to make the argument that Martin was the best player on the floor for Dallas for long stretches of the first half. Risacher’s stat line ended up looking good in the loss, but that was influenced loudly by the fact that garbage time against the Wolves stretched into most of the second half. For the record, Risacher led the Mavs with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting (4-of-8 from 3-point range), to go along with six rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot in the loss.
After coming into the second half leading by 15, the Timberwolves outscored the Mavs 36-17 in the third to put Dallas to bed early. Just a piss poor effort on all fronts against a foe that will embarrass you if effort and execution elude you for 48 minutes. Which it did. So they did.
