The Timberwolves were ahead by four points with about 3½ minutes to play and then suffered from a problem that came up throughout the regular season: Problems with their offense in the final minutes of a close game.

Irving scored 24 of his 30 points in the first half, and the Mavericks got the win despite shooting 24% (6 for 25) on 3-pointers. For the Wolves, Anthony Edwards was limited to 19 points on 6-of-19 shooting while Jaden McDaniels had a team-high 24 points and knocked down six of his nine 3-point attempts.

According to the NBA, the first missed call in the final two minutes of Game 1 came with 1:28 remaining when Luka Doncic should have been called for a traveling violation. Dallas ended up turning the ball over on this possession due to a different traveling violation, so this missed call was inconsequential.