The Minnesota Timberwolves aren't going to win many games after holding Anthony Edwards and Anthony Karl-Anthony Towns to a combined 28.6 percent field goal percentage in the first half of the Western Conference Finals.
The Timberwolves also aren't likely to win the series, with Edwards and Towns shooting a combined 33 percent from the field through the three games.
In the West Division Finals, the Dallas Mavericks took complete control of the series, defeating the Timberwolves 116-107 in Game 3 on Sunday to take a 3-0 series lead.
Trailing 104-102 with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter, the Mavs outscored the Timberwolves 12-1 with 34.8 seconds left to extend their lead to 113-105.
In 154 scenarios, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series in the NBA playoffs.
The Mavericks could pull off a stunning sweep in Game 4 on Tuesday in Dallas (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT). In the East, Boston leads the series 3-0 against Indiana, setting up a Celtics-Mavericks showdown in the NBA Finals.
After beating Denver in the conference semifinals, the Timberwolves don't look like the same team now that they're in danger of losing against Dallas.
So far in the playoffs, the Timberwolves have been overwhelmed by the Mavs and their inexperience has meant they have been unable to stop Dallas stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Doncic finished with 33 points, seven rebounds and five assists for his third 30-point outing of the series, while Irving, who is enjoying a basketball resurgence in Dallas, scored 14 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter. Doncic and Irving became the first backcourt players in the last 50 years to each score 30 or more points three times in the same playoff game.
“This is the most talented backcourt in NBA history,” TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy said.
“When you talk about Kai and Luka, there's a lot of credibility,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “… These are two winners. They want to win. They want to contribute to the team. … My job is to communicate to them what I see and put them in a position to be successful.”
In the final five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves missed eight of nine shots, including four 3-pointers. “We were awful offensively down the stretch. We were shooting poorly, we had a lot of turnovers, we were sluggish,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said.
Edwards had 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, and Towns had 14 points and 11 rebounds, but the pair combined to make 16-of-42 (38.1%) field goals and 0-of-10 from the 3-point line.
One concern for the Mavericks is the health of rookie center Derek Lively II, who was hit in the head by an unexpected knee from Karl-Anthony Towns with 8:35 left in the second quarter. The team said he had a neck strain, but Lively did not return. The 12th pick in the 2023 draft and All-Rookie selection went 13-of-13 from the field in the conference finals, and the Timberwolves took advantage of his absence.
