DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic pounced on Anthony Edwards after he stole the ball and smashed it far away, setting up a scramble and a jump ball that the Dallas superstar won.
The Mavericks once again produced big plays on both ends of the court and are now one win away from reaching their first NBA Finals in 13 years.
Doncic and Kyrie Irving scored 33 points apiece and Dallas went on a decisive run in the final five minutes to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 116-107 on Sunday night and take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
The 14-3 victory gave the Mavs their fifth consecutive playoff win. Derek Lively II has passed away Rookie center Karl-Anthony Towns' knee accidentally hit him in the back of the head, causing a neck sprain.
No team in NBA playoff history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit.
“Don't say that,” said Doncic, who will try to secure his first NBA Finals appearance in Game 4 on Tuesday night in Dallas. “But it feels great. But we've got to think about the next game. We've got to play with the same mentality. They're not going to run. Never.”
P.J. Washington Jr., who scored 16 points, put Dallas ahead with 3:38 left in the game when he hit a corner 3-pointer to tie the game after Doncic passed to Irving, who fed Washington the ball.
From there, the co-stars took over.
Doncic made a shot in the lane for a four-point lead, Irving sent the crowd into a frenzy with a falling jumper, and then Doncic set up Daniel Gafford for an alley-oop dunk with 34 seconds left for a 113-105 lead after Gafford had just blocked a Mike Conley layup at the other end.
“They're going to double me the whole game, they're going to double Kai, so it makes us stronger,” Doncic said. “Everybody's going to touch the ball, everybody's going to make a play. We're going to give it our all down the stretch and execute.”
Edwards scored 26 points for the Timberwolves, but just four points after Minnesota scored eight straight points in the third quarter to tie the game for the Timberwolves.
“I've never thought about the sky falling,” Edwards said. “I've always been positive, I've always been happy. I've been through a lot, so the sky's not falling for me.”
Towns scored 14 points but missed all eight of his 3-point attempts, including a 27-footer he rushed early in the shot clock to make it four with 1 minute, 25 seconds left.
Minnesota, which led 104-102 on a Kyle Anderson floater with five minutes left in the game, missed seven straight shots to hold an 18-point lead in the first half and a five-point lead in the final 90 seconds of Game 2.
“We've got to be right up there with them and try to score,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We've struggled throughout the whole series to close games out and these three minutes of games that we're playing, we're losing them.”
Doncic, whose game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds of Game 2 in Minnesota put Dallas firmly in control of the series, made 10 of 20 shots and 5 of 11 from the 3-point line.
Irving, who won a championship with LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016, scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, making 12 of 20 shots from long range and 3 of 6 from beyond the arc.
With 2011 NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki watching from center court, the Mavs came the closest they've come to playing on the NBA's biggest stage since the hulking German led the franchise to its only championship.
Edwards shot 11 of 24 from the field, but only attempted three shots in the fourth quarter, making two of them. The 22-year-old star, who admitted to feeling fatigued after the series, also had nine rebounds and nine assists.
“At this point, all we can do is stay positive,” Edwards said. “We can't look back. We're just going to try and take it one win at a time.”
In the second quarter, Lively experienced the kind of contact you normally see on a football field not far from the quarterback-tight end pair of Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, who were sitting courtside.
Lively, a freshman from Duke University, remained on the court and held his head after the accidental contact caused it to fly forward. Lively was on the ground for several minutes before being helped off the court and taken to the locker room, appearing dazed.
Lively collapsed during a drive after Mike Conley, who finished with 16 points, missed a shot, and Towns struck Lively in the head with his knee while going for an offensive rebound in the second quarter.
Lively, 20, and starter Gafford played key roles in helping Dallas jump out to a 2-0 lead. Lively has made 12 of 12 field goals in the series, including three in Game 3.
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This story has been updated to correct the Mavericks' final record to 14-3, not 12-3.
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