As Timberwolves shut down 3s, Mavericks find another way to win — again (2024)

MINNEAPOLIS — As the NBA’s 3-point revolution swept across the league during the past decade, its cultural geneses have been historically rooted in Oakland and Houston. It was the Warriors and the Rockets who forged paths, but following them was a little brother they couldn’t shake free from their shadow: The Dallas Mavericks.

Starting with the 2013-14 season, Dallas has finished every season within the top 10 in made 3s. Dirk Nowitzki’s modernization of the stretch four bled into Rick Carlisle’s increasingly radical philosophies, which graduated into the Luka Dončić era. Since Dončić’s arrival, only one franchise (the Milwaukee Bucks) has made more 3s than Dallas. Dončić is the best 3-point shot creator alive, sometimes even to his detriment when he passes up seemingly open shots to whip the basketball out to an open shooter. Even as the team’s current coaching staff and front office have replaced those from the past decade, Dallas has still been defined by its long-ranged proficiency.

Dallas still shoots more 3s than most and still has Dončić. But this team, which once lived and died by them, no longer relies on them to win.

On Wednesday, Dallas beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-105 in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. It was a masterful basketball event, one which saw the lead seesaw back and forth 14 times. It was also a game Dallas won with only six made 3s, something the team has done only one other time this entire season.

It was historic: Dallas became the fifth team in postseason history to win where the opponent hit 12 or more 3s and the seventh team to win a conference finals or finals game with that few shots made from distance in the past 10 seasons. It was a choice made by the Timberwolves, one in which their defenders stuck tight to Dallas’ shooters and mostly guarded Dallas’ two-man game with just two defenders.

“We’re going to take whatever you give us,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “We want to promote 3s, but if you take the 3s away when you have that many points in the paint against the No. 1 team defensively, we’ll take it if that’s what you’re going to give us. I thought the group pivoted nicely by understanding what was available on the floor by (Minnesota) taking away the 3s.”

It was clear that Minnesota, the league’s best defense in the regular season, had planned to limit those 3s. In the past two series, Dallas faced opponents that chose the opposite path. Coming into Wednesday’s game, Dallas had averaged the second-most corner 3s (12.1) of the 16 teams in the playoffs. In Game 1, the Timberwolves’ strategy limited them to just four. One of them was the shot that put Dallas ahead for good, a 3-pointer from P.J. Washington with 1:56 remaining in the game.

“To be honest, I do not even remember,” Washington said when asked how that defensive breakdown took place. (Upon rewatch, it was just ineffective transition defense while Minnesota had a numbers disadvantage.) To Washington, he must have been in shock to even realize he was open there.

“We just had to adjust and see how they’re guarding us,” Washington said at his locker after the game. “And we capitalized off that.”

Despite being a smaller team than the Timberwolves, the Mavericks who outscored them 62-to-38 in the paint and outrebounded them by eight. Minnesota has superb defenders, specifically Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, two players who were just named to All-Defense teams this week. It was principled for the Timberwolves to look over at their opponents and believed their two unquestionably elite stoppers could contain players like Dončić and Kyrie Irving by themselves.

It just more often played out like this in Game 1:

“We just had to make sure we brought Rudy away from the basket as much as possible,” Irving said afterward. “We understand that’s the Defensive Player of the Year, that they’ve got (two) guys who are all-defense first team, second team.”

Irving took the first half, scoring 24 points in the first half on 11-of-14 shooting. Occasionally, Minnesota did send double teams at Irving and Dončić’s pick-and-rolls, but more often Gobert resorted to his preferred drop coverage, where he hung back at the free throw line and ceded ground to the onrushing guards. But once Irving torched it for two quarters, Dončić took over. He scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-sealing bucket that came one play after an incredible defensive effort that broke up a lob pass that would have been an almost certain Gobert dunk.

“I turned around and saw that,” said Dereck Lively, the team’s rookie center who closed the game while playing 27 minutes. “Having someone like Luka who’s that locked in on the defensive end, it’s amazing.”

Lively finished plus-19 in his minutes, which further amplifies the ever-present postseason trend that the team is better with him on the court. There were many more timely plays from role players that mattered, as well. It is unquestioned that Dallas had more to give than the team did in Wednesday’s game. Even though Minnesota limited Dallas’ corner 3s, the team still managed to create above-the-break ones, but shot just 6-of-24 overall from distance. But when Dončić and Irving keep pouring in buckets, it doesn’t matter much.

“If that’s the way they’re going to play us, then we’ve got to be able to eat up the paint and knock down the 2s,” Kidd said.

Minnesota has adjustments that the team can make, ones which eschew Wednesday’s ineffective defense for more tried-and-true methods that Dallas has seen throughout this postseason. The team could commit further to its double teams or find other way to prevent what’s next, and it’s no guarantee what Dallas did effectively against the Timberwolves in Game 1 will be effective there.

But what comes, having already stolen home court advantage, is easier to adjust to with the confidence Dallas has already done it once.

(Top photo: David Dow / NBAE via Getty Images)

Tim Cato is a staff writer at The Athletic covering the Dallas Mavericks. Previously, he wrote for SB Nation. Follow Tim on Twitter @tim_cato