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

Oh, and what about the dagger?

Edwards was incredible in the first 12 minutes, scoring 24 points. From then on, however, he cooled off a bit, perhaps in part because he fell hard 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 deficit, but the Wolves simply didn’t have consistent answers to Irving’s scoring and Dončić’s playmaking, even though Dončić himself seemed to have to shake off a leg injury.

This duo received a lot of love on social media after the win:

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

The Wolves didn’t do themselves any great favors with 20 turnovers on Tuesday night, but were able to compensate somewhat with 33 assists and 19 of 39 shots from three assists. Ultimately, however, the same thing that ended their 2023-24 season proved to be a problem at the start of this season: They simply had no answers for Luka and Kyrie.

Very few teams do that on defense.