MINNEAPOLIS — You don’t become a champion in this NBA by playing it safe. You accept risk and if your culture is what you think it is, it can be rewarding.
Or it can help build a culture.
The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves were in two different places as they threw pessimism to the wind and embraced the unknown.
Dallas took on Kyrie Irving when he was considered radioactive by basketball standards, and the Timberwolves paid a king’s ransom for draft picks by acquiring Rudy Gobert months earlier.
Luka Dončić advances to the round where he will wear the crown that has been on several heads for the past six years, after his individual greatness forced the organization to find him a suitable running mate.
The NBA Finals await the Dallas Mavericks for the third time in franchise history, as they meet the Boston Celtics on Thursday night in Boston, thanks to a 124-103 Game 5 win at Target Center.
Dončić received the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP award for his overall performance, but it was his fiery start to the evening that was so reminiscent of the last time the Mavericks made a deep playoff run, when they defeated the favored Phoenix Suns swept away. in a shocking seventh match in the 2022 second round.
In it, Dončić scored 42 and taunted everyone in Phoenix. On this night, he removed little doubt about bringing the Timberwolves back to Dallas for a busy Game 6 by dropping 20 vicious points in the first quarter – outscoring the opposition in the stanza itself.
“He was absolutely Luka’s magic in his own right,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He set the tone. Game 7 in Phoenix, it was very close there. He immediately took the crowd out of the match. And he let his teammates know that we needed to step up and he joined the party. But he said he sent out the invitations and they all came.”
He is said to have sent out invitations to the crowd – the fans who were powerless to stop him but desperate to taunt him – because it only fueled his fire even more. He could hear every whine, every complaint about his whining to the referees – because for the first few moments the noisy crowd was silenced with every moon shot.
“It’s a good feeling, I can’t lie. It’s us against them,” said Dončić, who finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. “That puts me to work. Everyone knows that.”
The game wasn’t really in doubt after the first few minutes as the Timberwolves exposed their relative inexperience at this new height. By the time Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards (28 points each) found their footing, the crowd was anxious, the pair’s legs were tired and the lead grew to almost 40 in the third quarter.
As Towns and Edwards sat at the podium to explain their feelings, the noise echoed down the hall from the walls of the Mavericks’ party – a joyous scene in the locker room, many of which came from the young pieces Dončić and Irving, surrounded by, as Dončić calls himself and 32-year-old Irving, “old heads.”
It’s a stark contrast to two weeks ago, when the Timberwolves celebrated loudly in front of Nuggets coach Michael Malone.
Maybe it’s poetic, maybe it’s just basketball.
It’s another series the Mavericks have finished on the road, the third straight series this postseason in which they haven’t had home field advantage. The last time that happened in the Western Conference was when the 1995 Houston Rockets won their second consecutive title with Hakeem Olajuwon as the headliner, while the second edition added Clyde Drexler as a co-star.
Those Rockets defeated two teams with 60 wins and two that won 57 or more en route to the title. This Mavericks team has defeated three of the top four teams in the West, all of whom won at least 51 games, with the Timberwolves and Thunder winning 56 and 57, respectively.
The incoming Celtics have 64 league wins and a 12-2 playoff record.
“It’s not easy. It’s a very difficult road,” Dončić said. “Very difficult. But we are here. Of course we are not done yet, but today we deserve all this.”
And while Jalen Brunson had emerged in that final Mavs postseason run, he wasn’t destined to emerge as the perfect complement to Dončić that Irving has become, nor was this roster ready for true prime time.
Irving matched Dončić 36-34 after the first quarter. The proof of concept for these two was stamped and the doubters were reassured, at least temporarily until the next test was presented.
It’s a fully formed roster that deserves June’s attention as she will have a different candidate for the sixth year in a row.
It was hard to tell how good this team was, whether Kidd could indeed knit this group together, whether Dončić’s ball-dominant style could produce real results. Forgive Kidd if he threw a few sharp barbs in celebration — he earned this moment, and he knew what was being said about the Mavericks’ ambitious play.
“But those two worked on it. It just didn’t happen overnight,” Kidd said of Dončić and Irving. “And that is a beautiful thing.
“And so it’s okay to be wrong. We are not always right. But it’s a nice combination. The two play off each other. And you can tell they care. They care about each other.”
But unlike the Celtics, they enter the Finals invigorated by the fire of their path. Every round the opponent had real championship dreams, if not expectations. The Los Angeles Clippers may have been too old, too broken. The Oklahoma City Thunder, too green. These Timberwolves aren’t as inexperienced as they seem, but there are still playoff lessons to be learned.
Lessons the Mavericks learned two years ago, when the Golden State Warriors felt a title was attainable and executed with urgency.
The Mavericks exercised urgency with their selection, believing an opportunity was within reach. Good wasn’t just good enough, and by even strategically tanking two games late last year to miss the play-in, thereby keeping their draft pick, Dereck Lively II became the biggest piece of their defense.
It wasn’t just the Irving takeover, a takeover that was labeled desperate and without organizational direction. Teasing PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, two role players languishing on losing teams and losing cultures, had the biggest impact at the trade deadline.
“We really believe we have the pieces. Sometimes you take a step back and look at what you have,” Kidd says.
That’s where the Timberwolves are, the team that needs to step back and look at its reflection, even in the face of emotional exhaustion and disappointment.
It’s been said before and it bears repeating: the Timberwolves are coming back. There’s no shame in making it this far and not advancing to the NBA Finals.
They suppressed the Phoenix Suns and eliminated the champion Nuggets on their home floor in an impressive comeback and many believed this year’s run was just beginning.
It could be, but there is no guarantee.
They wouldn’t be here without the Gobert acquisition, just as the Mavericks wouldn’t be moving forward without Irving and his prodigious performances, his understated leadership and his ability to play alongside Dončić.
As the evening closed, Kidd huddled with new team governor Patrick Dumont, Irving hugged his stepmother, Shetellia Riley Irving, and Dončić carried his Magic Johnson trophy like a sack of potatoes.
It’s Boston, on to the next challenge – strengthened by fire, forged by a risky proposition that doesn’t feel so risky after all.
