LaMelo Ball Ran the Show as the Timberwolves Buried Dallas by 39

The halftime score was the polite version. Minnesota led Dallas 67–52 at the break at Target Center, stretched the lead to 103–69 through three quarters — 36 points hung on Dallas in the third while the Mavericks managed 17 — and closed out a 133–94 win, a 39-point demolition finished off by the benches. LaMelo Ball built the first half and supervised the rest: 22 points, nine assists and six made threes in 25 minutes, on a night the Timberwolves played without Anthony Edwards, out with a knee injury.

Ball’s line was not a hot hand, it was a takeover. He went 8-for-14 from the field and 6-for-10 from deep, with three rebounds, two steals and a plus-24 in 25 minutes, and the assists ran ahead of the scoring all night — he was finding Gobert at the rim and shooters in the corners before Dallas ever set its defense. He came in averaging 18.3 points and 6.0 assists a night, and he passed both numbers before the third quarter ended, against a Dallas team that arrived 7–4 on a three-game win streak. His work was done early enough that the fourth quarter asked almost nothing of him.

The balance is the beating

This was not one man dragging a team. Bones Hyland poured in a game-high 24 off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting, with eight assists of his own. Ayo Dosunmu had 18 on a plus-27. Jaden McDaniels had 16 points and nine rebounds. Jonathan Kuminga — whose slam over the Dallas defense was the loudest single play of the night — had 14 points and eight boards. Rudy Gobert scored only nine and still bent the game: six rebounds, two blocks, and a Dallas offense that kept pulling up early because the rim was occupied. Even the deep bench ate: Joan Beringer added 13 points and nine rebounds. Minnesota is 9–3, has won five straight, and got this blowout from everywhere at once.

Dallas brought the names

Across the floor, the stars Dallas brought to Minneapolis were held to a whisper. Cooper Flagg finished with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting and seven rebounds. Kyrie Irving had 10, with a minus-36. P.J. Washington had 10 in 16 minutes. Dallas’s biggest number belonged to Zaccharie Risacher, 22 off the bench — nearly all of it in a fourth quarter played long after the game was decided — and Naji Marshall had 13. Flagg came into the night averaging 25.9 points a game, the engine of everything the Mavericks do. Minnesota took the engine out and left the names on the marquee.

The fourth quarter was a formality: the benches stretched the margin to 39 at the horn, Dallas’s three-game win streak ended with the Mavericks at 7–5, and the only suspense left was the size of the number. The shape of the night had settled long before that. Without Edwards, Minnesota’s other star took the whole evening over, and Dallas never found the switch.

Game Center — Dallas at Minnesota, final · Stats Hub · NBA hub