By james art Luka Doncic finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for Dallas, which earned its second win in as many nights. PJ Washington had 17 points and eight rebounds and Daniel Gafford added 14 points.
Anthony Edwards scored 37 points on 12-for-20 shooting to lead Minnesota, which ended a two-game winning streak. Julius Randle finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Naz Reed contributed 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
The Timberwolves allowed 20 tackles, while Dallas had just nine.
Minnesota trailed 99-87 after Gafford hit a layup with 8:37 left.
The Timberwolves responded by scoring 20 of the next 30 points to pull within 109-107 with 4:04 to play. Rudy Gober had a rebound, was fouled on a putback attempt and made two free throws to cut the deficit to two.
Moments later, Irving buried a 3-pointer to extend Dallas’ lead to 112-107.
Doncic extended the lead to eight points with a 32-foot 3-pointer with 1:04 left. He lofted a shot from near the logo as the shot clock neared zero.
Edwards hit a 3-pointer to put Minnesota up 118-114 with 26 seconds left, but Dallas held off the Timberwolves’ rally from there.
The Mavericks led 93-82 late in the third quarter.
Edwards hit a floater to cut the Timberwolves’ deficit to 74-73 with 5:45 left in the third.
Dallas closed the period on a 19-9 run to grab a double-digit lead. Spencer Dinwiddie and Quentin Grimes started the flurry with back-to-back 3-pointers.
The Mavericks led 61-59 at halftime. Both teams shot better than 50 percent before the break, and Edwards had 24 points — all of which came in the first quarter.
The Timberwolves led by as many as 10 points in the first half when Reed drained a 3-pointer to put Minnesota on top 42-32 with 8:46 left.
Dallas responded with a 29-17 run to grab a two-point lead. Gafford ended the first half with a go-ahead goal with 43.8 seconds left.
–Field level media