Ball and Hyland Power Timberwolves' 133-94 Rout of Mavericks

The Minnesota Timberwolves did not need Anthony Edwards on Thursday night. Playing without their All-Star guard, who sat out with a knee injury, Minnesota produced its most complete performance of the young season, routing the Dallas Mavericks 133-94 at Target Center in Minneapolis for a fifth consecutive victory.

Bones Hyland scored 24 points off the bench and LaMelo Ball added 22 points and a season-high nine assists as the Timberwolves turned a tight first half into a rout, outscoring Dallas 36-17 in the third quarter and leading by as many as 44 points. Minnesota improved to 9-3, while Dallas saw its three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 7-5.

The 39-point margin was Minnesota's most lopsided victory of the season, surpassing its previous best of 25 points, and its seventh straight win over Dallas. It was also the second victory of a season-long eight-game homestand, and it came against a Dallas team that had arrived in Minneapolis having won three in a row.

The bench guards took over

Hyland changed the game the moment he entered it. He checked in with 4:34 remaining in the first quarter and Dallas leading 20-16, then scored eight points and dished out three assists in his first four minutes on the floor. Minnesota outscored the Mavericks 18-6 for the rest of the quarter, closing it on a 15-2 run capped by a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Jaylen Clark.

Hyland finished 7-of-10 from the field, including 5-of-6 from three-point range, and added eight assists against a single turnover in 23 minutes. Ball was just as efficient, shooting 8-of-14 overall and 6-of-10 from deep, and the Timberwolves were plus-24 with him on the court. Together, the two guards combined for 46 points, 17 assists and 11 three-pointers.

Dallas entered the night limiting opponents to 31.3 percent shooting from three-point range, the third-best mark in the NBA. Minnesota shredded that reputation, making 15 of 32 attempts from deep, and the point-guard pairing gave the Timberwolves an answer for every defensive adjustment the Mavericks tried.

A third-quarter avalanche

The game was still competitive midway through the second quarter. Dallas cut a 10-point deficit to 43-42 with 6:53 left before halftime, and the Mavericks briefly looked capable of stealing a road win. From that point through the end of the third quarter, Minnesota outscored Dallas 60-27, a stretch that turned a contest into a coronation.

A 17-4 run opened the third quarter, highlighted by Ball setting up Rudy Gobert for an alley-oop that pushed the advantage to 84-56. Minnesota shot 61 percent from the field in the first half to build a 67-52 lead, then kept pouring it on, and Hyland's layup gave the Timberwolves a 103-69 lead heading into the final 12 minutes.

Dallas had no answer inside

The Timberwolves dominated the Mavericks in the paint, outscoring them 74-42, and won the rebounding battle 50-38. Minnesota shot 57.8 percent from the field overall, converting 52 of 90 attempts, while Dallas managed just 37.2 percent, a season low, on 35-of-94 shooting. Ayo Dosunmu added 18 points, Jaden McDaniels scored 16, and Jonathan Kuminga contributed 14 points and eight rebounds.

Rookie Joan Beringer added 13 points and nine rebounds for Minnesota, outscoring Dallas star Cooper Flagg, who finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists in his lowest-scoring performance of the season. Zaccharie Risacher led the Mavericks with 22 points off the bench, but no other Dallas starter found a rhythm as the deficit ballooned.

What it means going forward

For Minnesota, the win reinforced the depth that has carried the team through Edwards' absence. The Timberwolves entered the night first in the NBA in defensive rating, and on Thursday they paired that defence with their most efficient offensive night of the season, dishing out 33 assists on 52 made field goals. If the bench backcourt keeps producing like this, Minnesota looks less like a team surviving without its star and more like a genuine contender in the Western Conference.

The flaws were not entirely hidden. Minnesota committed 17 turnovers, and Dallas scored 29 points off them, including 23 fast-break points, a reminder that the Timberwolves can still be careless with the ball. But on a night when the margin reached 44 points, those mistakes were footnotes rather than turning points, and the crowd at Target Center was celebrating long before the final buzzer.

Dallas, meanwhile, heads back on the road with questions to answer. The Mavericks continue their three-game trip on Saturday against the Cleveland Cavaliers before closing it on Sunday against the Boston Celtics, and head coach Dusty May made clear after the game that the response to this defeat matters more than the defeat itself. Minnesota, 2-0 on its homestand, simply keeps rolling.