MINNEAPOLIS — The greats all seem to have this magnetism in clutch situations. They become one with the ball, one with the moment, almost freezing everyone in a building to control the game.
It didn’t matter if it was a Defensive Player of the Year guarding Luka Dončić or another outmatched defender. Sometimes things seem to move in slow motion, and everyone is powerless to stop it.
Dončić is used to the calm of crazy moments, drawn to the thrill of a stunned arena, drawn to building Luka’s legend, shot by shot.
“I knew sh** was good. I knew it was right. The way it left his hands,” said Dallas Mavericks rookie Dereck Lively II.
“I know exactly what he was thinking, so it was time to get ready for the magic,” Mavs guard Kyrie Irving said.
“We were talking about taking the two, we’re only two down, but then he started dancing [Rudy] Gobert, you can see the step back is coming, and the rest is history,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said.
Lively II set up the screen to create the switch to get Timberwolves wing Jaden McDaniels from Dončić. Irving’s shot-making skills had to be respected so Dončić had room to work. Kidd named the piece for Dončić, but left his wizard to his fate.
Everyone contributed to Dončić’s penned moment when his three-pointer with 3.0 seconds left Friday night lifted the Dallas Mavericks to another road win in the Western Conference finals, taking back a 2-0 lead to Dallas with a 109-108 win over Doelcentrum.
Even Gobert played into the moment, allowing Dončić to challenge him for a drive to the basket but change course for that signature step back.
“We turned on the pick-and-roll,” Gobert said. “I was in isolation. He hit a big shot. I let my team down in the last game. They believed I would make a stop, and he scored a 3.”
Honestly, as helpless as Gobert was, it could have been anyone wearing a Timberwolves jersey, or a jersey of any kind – Dončić apparently has some kind of deal with history, and nothing could stop the inevitable tonight.
“I didn’t make a decision before the game, I just took what the defense gave me,” Dončić said. “We were just going to play pick-and-roll and figure it out from there.”
Dončić, rather subdued after the game, was anything but on the ground – he shouted an expletive at Gobert and then taunted the crowd after Naz Reid’s final three-pointer, another moment frozen in time as Reid hit seven three-pointers and scored a team-high 23 points to nearly stop the Timberwolves from capsizing.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. I almost fainted,” Dončić said of Reid’s shot as it headed toward the rim.
It capped a frantic 99 seconds when the Timberwolves held a commanding 108-103 lead. But Irving hit a 3-pointer and then forced a turnover on McDaniels after an official’s review, followed by another Minnesota turnover that set up Dončić’s moment.
Dončić recalled his game-winner in the Orlando bubble against the Clippers and also his leaning buzzer-beater in Memphis the following season – both to clear the crowd in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He created a similar sound, this time in front of a raucous Target Center audience, in a moment that felt simultaneously incredible and inevitable. It was the capper in a 32-point, 13-assist, 10-rebound performance from the man steadily rising into the conversation of the best player in the world.
It was almost as if Dončić had been creating that moment all game long, even as Dallas looked like it was content with stealing a game on the road and claiming home field advantage with the Game 1 victory.
Trailing by 18, Dončić kept working the game, playing the chess match between himself and the Timberwolves bigs protecting the basket, and he kept manipulating the coverages with his eyes – so someone like Lively can make all six of his field goals, almost all of them with politeness. of food from Dončić.
Ditto with starting center Daniel Gafford, who was 8-of-10 from the field.
The Mavericks find themselves two games into the NBA Finals — the first time they’ve been able to make such a claim since their surprising romp through the 2011 playoffs — as they play with equal parts poise and urgency.
And the more you watch them, the clearer Luka’s magic becomes. It’s almost irresistible to call them today’s team. In the first round, the Mavs defeated the Clippers, a team with urgency but too old. Last round they dispatched the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team with youth and energy, but a team for tomorrow. Now they face a mix of the two in the Timberwolves, but simply survive, out-perform and recognize today’s opportunities, not tomorrow’s.
“Just the confidence and calmness of the group,” Kidd said. “We could have just gotten on the bus after Kai missed the two free throws. But we believe in our defense, we got stops. Give our bank a lot of praise and give energy in a positive way.”
Irving switched roles with Dončić from Game 1. Dončić scored 15 in the fourth after Irving got them going. On Friday, it was Irving who was on fire. He hit four triples in the fourth quarter for 13 points, but shockingly missed three of four free throws in the waning minutes.
“I don’t want to get fined, but I was like, ‘Holy God, what the hell is going on?’ Irving said with a laugh. “A lot of emotions went through my head, a brief moment of disappointment. I think they got free chicken, right?
However, that’s all the fans would leave the arena with.
Normally, that fervor under such circumstances would spell doom for a visiting team, but the Timberwolves find themselves at a height higher than last round’s mile mark, and they have yet to catch their breath.
The Mavericks are stymieing Anthony Edwards as the 22-year-old is showing his age. Through two games, he is 11-for-33 and can’t get on the court without seeing a sea of bodies waiting for him.
The Mavericks’ lob contest also kept Karl-Anthony Towns off the floor for the final eight minutes. Towns struggled at both ends, going 4-for-16 in 25 minutes and causing Timberwolves coach Chris Finch to call on Reid, the league’s best sixth man, for an attack – and he delivered.
But these games are rarely decided by the role players. It is the stars that usually show the difference between star and superstar, superstar and supernova.
Dallas has a blazing supernova, which once again exploded in a blazing shot in the Minneapolis sky and came down as purple rain.
