Kyrie Irving, Luca Doncic lead Mavericks past Timberwolves 120-114

Some familiar problems popped up for the Timberwolves in their 120-114 loss to the Mavericks on Tuesday night — problems besides Luka Doncic draining a 33-footer over Nickeil Alexander-Walker to close the game with 1 minute, 4 seconds to play.

Doncic likely triggered a lot of Wolves fans with that shot, which came at the same end of the floor and only a few feet away from where he buried the Wolves in Game 2 of last season’s Western Conference finals.

Also triggering? The Wolves’ inability to secure the defensive glass and their leaky transition defense. These were problems they solved a season ago, but with new personnel joining the rotation after the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, the Wolves have to iron out these issues now that Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo are here.

Kyrie Irving scored 35 points while Doncic continued to play after injuring his knee in the second quarter to get 24 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. But the Wolves left Tuesday’s game with a similar feeling to how they felt after the Western Conference finals — it was there for the taking. They only had themselves to blame.

“They made some tough shots and we just got outrebounded like a mug,” said guard Anthony Edwards, who led the Wolves with 37 points. “They scored a lot in transition. Just transition defense and rebounding and we’ll be OK. I feel like we can beat anybody. If we get back in transition and we rebound, and if I rebound, we’ll be good.”

The 23 second-chance points and 20 fast-break points Dallas contributed to that win in a big way. The Wolves’ 20 turnovers also didn’t help, but the offense has been getting better since a lackluster opening night against the Lakers. The Wolves shot 51% overall and 49% from three-point range (though they did themselves no favors with a 17-for-26 night at the line).

The rebounding was in their control. To Edwards, the Wolves played good enough half-court defense to get the win, but they ruined that with their inability to rebound, something that was a problem prior to last season. P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II each had four offensive boards.

“Gotta rebound more, especially when Rudy’s not in the game when we go to Black-15, where we’re switching one through five,” Edwards said. “Usually they’re gonna call Naz [Reid] and Ju [Randle] up and it’s going to be me and Mike [Conley] and Donte or Nickeil at the bottom of the floor. We just gotta be more physical, more tough.”

Coach Chris Finch said a lot of the responsibility for that falls to the guards. Edwards had six boards, Jaden McDaniels had four while DiVincenzo had two. With Towns no longer on the team, it changes the way those guards have to think about rebounding. The Wolves were ninth in defensive rebounding rate last season, up from 26th the prior season.

“Before, KAT was a big rebounder, and obviously the length of him and Rudy was a difference-maker,” Finch said. “We don’t have that right now. It has to be a different mindset. It has to be that you have to take care of your own and you have to hit early. That’s something we’re not doing right now.”

BOXSCORE: Dallas 120, Wolves 114

As for the transition defense, Finch said the Wolves are too concerned with matching up in transition as opposed to getting back quick and figuring out matchups as they go. From the tip, this was an issue as Mavericks center Daniel Gafford had a party at the rim with eight early points.

“We’re worried about matching up with our man, rather than protecting the rim first and then talking our way back into matchups,” Randle said. “We’ve got to protect the rim every single time. We gave up 20 in transition, and like 10 or 12 of those had to just be like free layups. So we cut that in half, we cut the second-chance points that we gave up in half, we win the game by 10.”

Randle is new here, but he echoed a lot of what his teammates felt after last year’s playoff series against the Mavericks: If only they did this or that better, they would have won. Dallas reminded this new-look Wolves they have plenty of areas they need to address if they’re going to be contenders.

“We got to solve those two things because that was key for us last year,” Finch said.