DALLAS _ The Wolves came to Dallas to play their second road game of the season and on Wednesday they returned to American Airlines Center to complete the symmetry by playing their second-to-last road game, a 110-108 win over the Mavericks.
In their own ways, both games provided a snapshot of the Wolves' season. In the first meeting, Jimmy Butler did not play, opting to stay in Minnesota to rest before the Wolves traded him in November. The Wolves allowed 140 points that night, just one in a long line of systemic defensive issues that would ultimately contribute to their elimination from the playoff race.
On Wednesday a lot of those faces from that game weren't present in the arena _ no Tom Thibodeau, Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague, Luol Deng and Derrick Rose, all of whom have spent the last stretch of the season on the injury report and the Wolves trotted out several players who either weren't on the team or were glued to the bench that night.
Karl-Anthony Towns had a big game on both occasions, as he snapped out of his recent slump by scoring 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting. Towns had shot 25 of 72 (35 percent) over his last four games. Towns also grabbed 13 rebounds while Andrew Wiggins added 19 for the Wolves. A Wiggins layup with 19 seconds remaining provided the difference during a back-and-forth final few minutes that saw the lead change hands multiple times. A Jalen Brunson 3-point attempt missed for the Mavericks at the buzzer.
Rookie of the year candidate Luka Doncic led Dallas with 27 points, 12 rebounds and six assists while Dwight Powell added 25.
The Wolves rectified their recent issue of starting games slow and held a 32-27 lead after the first. It helped that Towns seemed to snap out of his recent funk. He was aggressive and dominant on the offensive end of the floor, flushing down a couple of dunks with authority on this way to 11 points and five rebounds in the opening quarter. As Ryan Saunders hinted after Friday's game against Portland, Towns and Gorgui Dieng play minutes together, something they have not done much of this season. With the pair on the floor, the Wolves took their biggest lead of the half 30-20.
Towns came out and the Mavericks cut into the Wolves' lead toward the end of the first and beginning part of the second quarter.
Dallas began feeding veteran Dirk Nowitzki early in the second quarter and Nowitzki responded with a pair of buckets that tied the score at 34.
In their first meeting of the season Mavericks rookie Luka Doncic provided a glimpse of how good he was going to be this season in scoring 26 points thanks in large part to his James Harden-esque stepback jumper. Doncic stayed quiet for most of the first half but heated up toward halftime, scoring 10 points in the second quarter, seven in the final 4:06.
The Wolves re-established control throughout the third quarter. The Wolves 72-71 with 6:39 to play in the third when a 10-2 spurt put them back up on and forced a Rick Carlisle timeout after a 3-pointer from Keita Bates-Diop. The Wolves benefited from Dallas' disappearing 3-point shooting in the quarter as the Mavericks shot 0-for-10 in the third, enabling the Wolves to build their largest lead of the game, 93-81, by the opening of the fourth quarter.
The Mavericks made it a game, cutting the Wolves lead to three multiple times before a Doncic stepback 3 gave them the lead 104-101 with 2:45 remaining. But a Wiggins three-point play followed by four consecutive Towns points gave the Wolves the lead back 108-106 with 48.4 seconds to play.
