Mavericks Make It Four-Straight Wins In Minnesota

The Dallas Mavericks kept their late-season momentum in full swing with a big win against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center.

The Dallas Mavericks are back above .500 following a huge 88-78 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The win gives the Mavericks a one-game cushion over the Houston Rockets, an intrastate rival that Dallas plays next Wednesday at American Airlines Center. No longer can the Mavs be accused of looking ahead to what will definitely be the biggest game of the year.

The clean sweep of the Timberwolves started out as a sloppy affair, with Dallas only scoring five points over the first four-plus minutes. In the first quarter, only Dirk Nowitzki, J.J. Barea – who else – and Devin Harris put points on the board, which helped the Mavericks stay in the game at 27-22 after one period.

In fact, Nowitzki’s game-opening three-pointer at the two minute mark of the opening period was a sign of things to come.

How would one expect the Mavericks to beat the Timberwolves when they were getting killed on the boards early on? Could the Mavs pull out a win despite losing the battle in points in the paint and fast break points early on?

To start with, the Timberwolves, despite getting a big night from young stars Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, did not have Barea on their team. The pint-sized point guard has been on a tear lately and he continued his run of dominance. Barea dropped in 21 points to lead the team in scoring, which included three 3-pointers on the night.

While Barea helped keep the Mavericks in the game into the second half, it was Wesley Matthews who exploded for four 3-pointers in the third quarter, which helped Dallas get its first separation of the whole game – it was 41-40 contest, in favor of the hosts, at halftime.

The Mavericks lead would swell to 18 in the fourth quarter before they cruised to a 10-point victory.

Minnesota got a total of 41 points from Wiggins and Towns, the latter just missing a triple-double, but they didn’t get much elsewhere. A thin Mavericks bench outscored Timberwolves reserves by a margin of 24-9.

Devin Harris was a constant irritant for the ‘Wolves with 16 points and another three of Dallas’ 14 shots from beyond the arc.

Justin Anderson, getting the start at small forward, showed outstanding defense throughout the night and came away with nine points and 10 total rebounds – if there’s anything special coming for the Mavericks should they qualify for the Western Conference playoffs, this rookie first-round pick from Virginia will have plenty to do with that. During the four-game hot streak, Dallas has yet to allow any opponent to reach 90 points. Anderson has been playing much more as of late.

Still without starting point guard Deron Williams, whose absence has no end in sight at this time, and obviously no longer with the services of Chandler Parsons, the Mavericks play their next two games at home against good teams from the Western Conference.

As mentioned before, Dallas plays host to the Rockets on Wednesday, who scored a huge win over the third-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder at Toyota Center on Sunday. Tipoff for the Rockets game is at 8:30pm CDT at AAC.

On Friday, the Mavericks play host to the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. Tipoff for that game is 7:30pm CDT.

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The recent road wins have placed the Mavericks in position to control their own destiny while playing three of their final five games at home. Each of Dallas’ remaining opponents, takeaway Houston, are currently in the playoff bracket.

• Published on 04/03/2016 at 23:37 PM
• Last updated at 04/03/2016 at 23:37 PM