Wolves Outlast Dirk-less Mavs 105-90

By admin | Published January 26, 2012

Dallas, TX -

With a new contract in books, Kevin Love continues to have a stellar season as the Timberwolves (8-10) beat the Mavericks (11-8), taking advantage of a team that is currently resting it’s franchise player in Dirk Nowitzki.

Down 2 at halftime, it seemed as though this game was going to be a much closer game than the first meeting between the teams this season, when the Wolves won at home by 17 on New Year’s Day.

Timberwolves’ head coach Rick Adelman showed why he’s one of the NBA’s best at making adjustments. The Wolves outscored the Mavs by 17 in the 2nd half behind the great play Kevin Love, who had 31 points and 10 rebounds in his league-leading 18th double-double of the season. Derrick Williams made his 2nd career NBA start, scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in 25 minutes of play. Fellow rookie Ricky Rubio had 17 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds and 4 steals, again flirting with a triple-double, but also had 7 turnovers.

Jason Terry had 17 points and 5 assists off the bench, being only 1 of 2 Mavericks who scored in double figures tonight (Marion with 15). Lamar Odom could not buy a bucket tonight, going 2 for 14 from the field and having only 5 points in 16 minutes.

The Dirk-less Mavs, who have looked rusty all year, committed twice as many fouls as the Wolves, were out rebounded, and all around just looked like a team that wasn’t in sync. The Mavs allowed the Wolves to shoot 33 free throws while only getting 10 themselves and were ice-cold from the 3-point line with a 27% mark leading to the team’s 3rd home loss of the year after coming off a 3-game winning streak.

With a win tonight, the Wolves move to 4-4 on the road this year with a 4-6 mark at home, after being the worst team in the league on the road the last few years. After winning the last 5 games against Minnesota before this season, the Mavericks have lost both games this year by a combined 32 points, and unless they can win the rematch on February 10th in Minnesota, they risk their first sweet to the Timberwolves in over a decade.