Luka Doncic’s last second 3-pointer ends Minnesota Timberwolves Game 2 hopes

The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves put on a show Friday night, but as is always the case, there’s got to be a winner and a loser. On a night when they gave as good as they got, the Timberwolves fell once again to the Mavs, leaving them 2-0 down in the Western Conference finals.

Luka Doncic was unstoppable

It may be that with 47 seconds left on the clock and the score standing at 106-108 in the Timberwolves’ favor, a pivotal moment occurred that ultimately decided the game. Myles Turner was crowded by Kyrie Irving on the baseline and the former appeared to deflect the ball out of bounds. It was a call that Minnesota challenged and subsequently saw overruled resulting in Dallas’ possession. Only, replays clearly showed that Irving fouled Turner resulting in the ball going out of bounds. Shouldn’t it be that if the point is to get the call right, referees don’t simply stick with the challenge itself?

Nonetheless, the debate surrounding that moment does little to address the problem that Luka Doncic created for the Timberwolves on Friday night. In a triple-double performance that saw him score 32 points while providing 13 assists, and grabbing 10 rebounds, the Slovenian was superb. That said, there was a period during the 3rd quarter when Doncic cooled down and it was at that point, that Kyrie Irving heated up. The Mavs’ point guard notched 20 points to go with 6 assists and rebounds in a solid outing.

Yet, we’ve got to get back to Doncic. In the clip that you will see above you will find that there are several things to unpack. Firstly, there’s the context which is to say the Mavs were down 106-109 with less than 10 seconds on the clock. Then, there is action which is to say Luka Doncic almost injured Rudy Gobert with his ball handling before sinking a step-back 3-pointer with three seconds left. Finally, there was the result, a 109-108 win in Minnesota to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Like we said, unstoppable.