Game 3 recap: A quarter-by-quarter look at Timberwolves’ 116-107 loss to Mavericks

The Timberwolves and Mavericks played in Dallas on Sunday night, and the Mavs won to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference final series. Staff writer Chris Hine filed these reports from American Airlines Arena:

Statistics and play-by-play from Game 3

To continue their season, the Timberwolves will have to do what no other NBA has ever done: Come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series.

They lost a late lead and fell to the Mavericks 116-107.

Dallas has had the two best players in this series, and the Wolves again had non-existent late-game offense, as they went 4 minutes, 50 seconds in the fourth quarter without a field goal.

Kyle Anderson hit a shot-clock beating jumper with 5:05 to play that put the Wolves ahead 104-102, but the Mavericks went on a 12-1 run as Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving dominated a Wolves defense that has had no answers for the Dallas duo. Doncic and Irving each finished with 33 points.

Doncic put the Mavericks ahead 109-105 with a midrange fadeaway as he was falling down with 2:16 to play. After a pair of Wolves empty possessions, Irving hit a fadeaway jumper to put Dallas up 111-105 with 1:02 to play. The Wolves stopped driving to the basket, which had been working for them most of the quarter without Dereck Lively II in for Dallas. Lively exited because of a neck strain in the second quarter after making contact with Karl-Anthony Towns’ knee.

Anthony Edwards finished with 26 points for the Wolves while Towns again struggled with 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting, including 0-for-8 from three-point range.

As Dallas went small without Lively in the lineup, the Wolves attacked the rim and got layup and buckets in the paint to start the fourth from Naz Reid and Anderson, who scored eight points in the opening minutes of the quarter. Irving was hitting at the other end for Dallas as he his three of his first four shots to open the quarter as the teams were tied 100-100 with 7:06 to play.

Anderson beat the shot clock with a one-handed runner to give the Wolves a 104-102 lead with 5:05 to play before Irving connected toward the end of the shot clock at the other end following a tough defensive possession by the Wolves. Anderson’s bucket would be it for the Wolves on offense until a late, meaningless layup from Edwards.

Anthony Edwards pledged to be aggressive headed into Game 3, and he found his aggression in the third quarter as he led the Wolves back in the game with 10 third-quarter points and the teams were tied 87-87 headed into the fourth.

With the Wolves down 76-77, Edwards scored eight of Minnesota’s next 11 points, including a thunderous dunk in the line that sent a shockwave through the Dallas crowd. The dunk seemed to energize Edwards, who then hit his next two jumpers and amped up his defensive intensity as he forced a turnover of Derrick Jones Jr. He then motioned to the bench to take a timeout at the 4:10 mark.

The Wolves took their first lead since 5-3 when Naz Reid hit a driving layup to put them up 79-77.

The Wolves couldn’t stop sending Dallas to the free-throw line in the third. The Mavericks were in the penalty by the 8:36 mark of the quarter and Mike Conley went to the bench with four fouls. Dallas was 14-for-17 from the free-throw line in the third quarter. Luka Doncic was up to 26 by the end of the third, 8-for-10 at the free-throw line.

Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert of the Wolves also start the fourth quarter with four fouls each.

Minnesota was hitting shots to open the half as they took advantage of Dereck Lively’s absence (Lively was officially ruled out because of a neck sprain). Jones, Dallas’ go-to perimeter defender, also exited the game briefly after absorbing a hard illegal screen from Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Karl-Anthony Towns missed his first seven shots of the night and went 2-for-10 in the first half as the Wolves trail Dallas 60-52 at halftime. Towns missed all five of his three pointers.

But Dallas suffered a significant injury to its frontline as Dereck Lively left the game because of a neck injury with 8 minutes, 35 seconds to play in the second.

As Lively fell to the floor going for a rebound, his head collided with the knee of Towns, snapping his neck forward. Lively remained on the floor for several moments during a timeout and he needed help getting off the floor as he struggled to maintain his balance. He exited with six points on 3-for-3 shooting with three rebounds and will not return.

Lively was 13-for-13 in the series before leaving; earlier in the game he took a Towns knee to the groin as the Wolves big man drove to the rim..

Luka Doncic of the Mavs and Rudy Gobert exchanged pleasantries later in the quarter on consecutive plays after they got tangled up on a rebound and around a screen. Doncic had some words for Gobert after he hit the game-winning three over him in Game 2. Both teams had unsuccessful challenges in the first half.

Edwards and Jaden McDaniels had 12 points to lead the Wolves.

Dallas shot 54% for the half as Doncic led them with 15.

Before Sunday’s Game 3, Wolves coach Chris Finch said the message for Karl-Anthony Towns was to play slower while he wanted Anthony Edwards to play quicker.

Edwards had nine first-quarter points but Towns could not get on track as the Wolves trailed Dallas 33-28 after one.

Wolves point guard Mike Conley went to the locker room during the quarter; he had been playing despite a calf injury. He was back shortly after.

Edwards was 3-for-6 from the field while Towns went 0-for-3 in the quarter. Luka Doncic had eight early points for Dallas.

Dallas came out with a burst in its home arena as the Mavericks hit their first three threes of the night and Edwards got off to a rocky start with a turnover, a brick and one of two free throws after a drive.

Edwards hit his next two shots and the Wolves got threes from Conley and Jaden McDaniels and pulled within 15-13 at a timeout with 6:01 to play.

The Wolves got seven first-quarter points from McDaniels who found success with his mid-range jumper from about 10 feet, but the Wolves defense had little answer for the Mavericks offense, which shot 11-for-19.

Dallas starters are point guard Luka Doncic (playoff stats: 28.0 scoring, 9.4 rebounds, 9.3 assists), shooting guard Kyrie Irving (21.6 points, 5.4 assists), small forward Derrick Jones (10.1 points), power forward P.J. Washington(13.9 points) and center Daniel Gafford (9.2 points, 5.7 rebounds). Center Dereck Lively is averaging 8.7 points off the bench.

For the Wolves, it’s point guard Mike Conley (11.4 points, 6.1 assists), shooting guard Anthony Edwards (27.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists), small forward Jaden McDaniels (12.5 points), power forward Karl-Anthony Towns (18.3 points, 8.9 rebounds) and center Rudy Gobert (12.5 points, 10.5 rebounds). Naz Reid is averaging 11.7 points off the bench.

Referees are Tony Brothers (crew chief), Ben Taylor and Curtis Blair. The last time they had the Wolves it was Game 3 of the Denver series, which the Wolves lost at home.

The game is televised on TNT, with tip schedule for 7 p.m.

One of the defining characteristics of Anthony Edwards on and off the court is the infectious joy with which he approaches every aspect of his life. You’ll rarely find Edwards in a bad mood, no matter the circumstances.

But Edwards said after the first two games of the Western Conference finals, he lost a little bit of the joy in playing basketball as he has gone through some scoring struggles.

“I probably been getting away from having fun out there,” Edwards said at shootaround before Game 3. “Just letting my misses and stuff get in my head. I just got to get back to having fun, playing with joy, with a smile on my face.”

Edwards is 11-for-33 so far in this series and vowed he would be more aggressive, attack the basket more and take more shots in Game 3 than he has so far.

“Y’all gonna see tonight. It’s gonna be a lot of shoots,” Edwards said. “... I’m gonna be super aggressive. I haven’t took more than 16 shots in each game. So, I’mma be ultra aggressive coming out, for sure.”

Edwards said the atmosphere around the team was still positive and upbeat despite the Wolves losing two games at home they could have won.

“Everybody in a good mood, especially myself,” Edwards said. “We dropped two games. We gave them two games. We’re pretty confident.”