Luka Doncic sets tone with legendary start, Mavericks crush Timberwolves to reach NBA Finals

Not everything Luka Doncic threw at the rim went through the hoop.

It just seemed that way.

The Dallas Mavericks’ All-NBA guard sprinkled that Luka Magic from deep, the paint and mid-range.

The Minnesota Timberwolves' disappearing act is complete.

Doncic scored 20 of his 36 points in the first quarter, and the Mavericks defeated the Timberwolves 124-103 in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Thursday, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011 (third time overall) and for the first time in Doncic’s career. They will play the Boston Celtics for the championship.

The Mavs used a 17-1 run to build a 35-19 lead after one quarter, increased the margin to 46-23 with 8:52 left in the second quarter and took a 69-40 lead into halftime against the league’s best regular-season defense, featuring Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.

Doncic had 10 of the Mavericks’ first 12 points, 12 of their first 16, 14 of their first 24 and 20 of their first 30. He was 8-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 on 3-pointers. Doncic had his offense rolling, and Minnesota was helpless. And then hopeless.

"He took the crowd out of the game right off the bat and he let his teammates know that it's time that we've got to take it up a notch and they joined the party," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. "But he sent the invites out, and they all came. But he was ready to go."

Mavs guard Kyrie Irving matched Doncic with a team-high 36 points. Doncic added 10 rebounds and five assists and Irving had four rebounds and five assists.

"Those two responded at a high level, and they carried us tonight," Kidd said.

Doncic was named the Western Conference finals MVP.

"Kudos to him having a great series, a great playoff run in general, but just leading us that way and being able to kind of ease the tension a little bit and emotions starting off the game," Irving said. "You see our guy Luka scoring 20 like that. I mean, it eases everybody's pressure a little bit."

Mavericks-Celtics starts on June 6 with Game 1 in Boston. The Mavs are just the second No. 5 seed to reach the Finals (Miami in the 2020 bubble was the other), and they are going after the franchise’s second title after winning the championship in 2011.

Boston is going after its 18th championship, trying to break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for most titles in NBA history. The Celtics last won it all in 2008.

The Celtics won both games against Dallas this season, but one victory came before the trade deadline and the other victory after the trade deadline — not against the starting lineup that has brought Dallas the kind of success that made it a contender.

With Doncic, Irving, Derrick Jones Jr., Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington – the last two players acquired ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline – in the starting lineup, the Mavericks are 27-6, including 12-5 in the playoffs.

The Mavs, who missed the playoffs and were a lottery team last season, were one of the best teams in the league in the final two months of the season, and they carried that into the playoffs as the lower seed in each series, beating the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota (all 50-win teams). The Thunder had the best record in the West and the Timberwolves had just one fewer victory than OKC.

After the trade deadline, Dallas had the third-best record in the league at 21-9 and were 16-2 with Doncic, Irving, Washington, Gafford and Jones in the rotation, including 15-1 as starters. In the final two months of the season, the Mavs had the No. 7 offense and No. 6 defense – an improvement over where they were before the trade deadline (12th offensively and 22nd defensively).

The Timberwolves' inexperience at this stage of the playoffs factored into the short series. Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards, 22, is a burgeoning star, and for the most part, he had a strong postseason. There are reasons the Timberwolves and their fans should be excited.

But Edwards and his teammates struggled to match Dallas’ execution. After out-executing Denver in the West semifinals, the Timberwolves were out-executed by the Mavs. Minnesota lost the first three games by a combined 13 points, won Game 4 and were annihilated in Game 5. The Timberwolves lost all three home games in the series.

The Timberwolves shot 42.7% from the field and 31.3% on 3s Thursday. Edwards scored 28 points and added nine rebounds and six assists. Karl-Anthony Towns had 28 points and 12 rebounds.

Minnesota will be a factor next season, and like the other good young teams in the league that fell short of the Finals (Oklahoma City, Indiana), the Timberwolves will try to apply the painful lessons to next season.