3 takeaways from Mavericks' Christmas loss to Timberwolves

The Dallas Mavericks fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Christmas Day Wednesday afternoon, nearly erasing Minnesota’s 28-point lead before falling 105-99. Dallas cut the lead to two in the final minute, but they were never able to take the lead again.

The biggest story coming out of the game is Luka Doncic’s calf strain that forced him to miss the second half. Shams Charania said Doncic is expected to miss an “extended period of time,” but Dallas will know more after an MRI on Thursday.

In Doncic’s absence, Kyrie Irving scored 39 points while leading the team. Unfortunately for the Mavs, it was too little, too late.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.

Minnesota’s offense has struggled in recent games, so this was an opportunity to establish a dominant defense. Dallas’ defense was good in the first quarter and great in the fourth, but stops were hard to come by in the second and third. The Timberwolves scored 64 points, 24/40 (60%) from the floor and 10/18 (55.6%) from three. 13 of those field goals came off an assist, highlighting how well their offense was running. As close as the game was at the end, showing a better effort after Doncic went out could have been the difference.

Kyrie Irving paced the team with 39 points on 14/27 shooting, and Doncic played well before going down with the injury. Everyone else was weak, combining for 46 points on 17/51 (33.3%) shooting. That’s not good enough in a game without Luka Doncic, especially when big men Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II were a combined 3/9 and Spencer Dinwiddie was 0/7. Maxi Kleber was the only other Maverick to shoot over 50% from the floor in this game and made three shots. This team has a lot of depth, but they’ve had the occasional stinker like this.

Dallas will likely be without Luka Doncic for a few weeks while he recovers from this calf strain, and the Mavs will want to play it as safe as possible. This is already the fifth lower-body injury he’s dealt with this season and we’re only 30 games in. They’ve mostly played well in games without Luka Doncic this season, including a big win against the OKC Thunder, but this could be a long stretch without him. If Wednesday’s second and third quarters were any indication, Jason Kidd has some adjustments to make.

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