Dončić, meanwhile, flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 24 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

Oh, and how’s this for the dagger?

Edwards was incredible in the first twelve minutes, scoring 24 points. However, he cooled off a bit from then on, perhaps partly affected by a heavy fall to the ground at some point in the first half.

Julius Randle (20 points, seven rebounds, seven assists) tried to pick up some of the slack, but the Wolves simply had no consistent answers to Irving’s scoring and Dončić’s playmaking, even as Dončić himself had to shake off what appeared to be a leg injury are.

That duo got their fair share of love on social media after the win:

Minnesota fans are getting tired of seeing the duo of Irving and Dončić. The pair torched the Timberwolves in last season’s Western Conference Finals, closing the series in five games. Dončić averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists in that series, while Irving added 27 points per game.

The Wolves didn’t do themselves much favors on Tuesday night, scoring 20 goals, although they compensated somewhat with 33 assists and 19 of 39 shooting from three. But ultimately, the same thing that ended the 2023-2024 season proved to be a problem early on in this season: they simply didn’t have any answers for Luka and Kyrie.

Few teams do that on defense.