MINNEAPOLIS — It wasn’t a world-ending moment. On the other hand, when Luka Dončić limps into the locker room during a game, it’s always a red alert moment for the Mavericks.

Dončić fell to the ground after making a move in the paint, clutching his right leg, and quickly asked to be removed from the game. Apparently he was kneed in the back of the leg by Jaden McDaniels.

As he hobbled into the locker room with 1:10 left in the first half of Tuesday’s 120-114 win over Minnesota, the Mavericks could do nothing but hold their breath.

In the end, they managed to dodge a bullet.

“It got a little scary,” Dončić said after the game. “A lot of injuries happen. It hurts quite a bit now.

“I stopped and someone kicked me from behind. My knee went forward. They weren’t good feelings.”

Dončić returned at the start of the third quarter, albeit with an additional support sleeve on his right leg, covering the knee, lower leg and thighs.

His game was by no means smooth. He made one jump shot and shot just 10 of 27 from the field.

But he made up for it all by hitting a three-pointer from 32 feet away with 1:04 left that clinched the game and gave the Mavericks a 117-109 lead.

Despite the heroics, I still felt a sense of relief when I saw Luka back on the ground after a frightening moment.

Dončić had a bothersome bruise in his left calf that kept him out of all four preseason games and most training camps.

But he had played well in the first two games of the regular season before stumbling on Monday, shooting just 5 of 22 from the field in the Mavericks’ 110-102 win over Utah.

On Tuesday, he got going offensively in the second quarter and had 13 points and six assists when he left the game.

Wolves in a new look: The Timberwolves got not only Julius Randle, but also Donte DiVincenzo in the trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York.

Things look different for the Wolves, but similar to the team they had in May when the Mavericks won the Western Conference championship in five games over the Wolves.

“He gives us physicality on offense, he’s a score-first guy,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said of Randle. “He created a lot of great offensive players for his teammates. I think that’s something we’ve really benefited from. He was fun to have.”

And that’s after the 6-9 Plano Prestonwood product has been in action for less than a month since the trade.

Randle finished Tuesday with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. It was a solid game, but Finch said the transition clearly isn’t complete yet.

“We told him after Game 1, you do your thing and we’ll suit you,” he said. “We need to see you do your thing so we can familiarize ourselves with what that is. And he spent most of the preseason and certainly the first game against the Lakers trying to procrastinate.”

As for DiVincenzo, Finch said, “Great pro, does anything you ask him to do.” Just an extremely competitive kid. He really is. And that’s where it starts.”

This also included a clever assist from DiVincenzo to Anthony Edwards for one of the Ant-Man’s six three-pointers in the first quarter.

With Randle and DiVincenzo, the Wolves actually became more physical. But will this help them take another step in the playoffs?

“We didn’t put together a squad to beat Dallas, per se,” Finch said. “Right now we’re just trying to figure out who we are every night and what we can do at a highly repeatable level. We feel like we have something physical.”

Meager: After scoring 24 points in the first quarter, Edwards only scored 13 points the rest of the game. . . The Mavericks had an exemplary performance from PJ Washington, who had 17 points and eight rebounds. They are now 3-0 this season, with the forward scoring in double figures (15-5 including last season). . . The Mavericks turned the ball over just 10 times against the Wolves, who had 20 turnovers. That resulted in the Mavericks scoring 25 fewer points from Minnesota’s turnovers, 20 more than the Wolves scored from the Mavs’ misses.

X: @ESefko