MINNEAPOLIS – Way before Luka Dončić conjured up his magic Friday night, Daniel Gafford had his own believe-it-or-not moment without which the Mavericks may not have pulled off a wild win at Target Center.
The Mavericks were locked in a dramatic battle with the Minnesota Timberwolves midway through the fourth quarter when Gafford blocked a three-point try, then leaked out as Dončić got the short rebound.
Luka whipped a court-length pass to the streaking Gafford, who absorbed some contact from Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels and, as the big center was falling to the floor. He flipped up a shot a microsecond before he hit the hardwood that somehow nestled into the net and put the Mavericks ahead 96-94.
“I just threw it up there, in all honesty,” Gafford said. “That’s called a prayer shot, in my world. I just tried to make sure my eyes were on the basket and threw it up there and let the man upstairs handle it. He put it in the basket for me.”
That was the sort of moment that defined the play of Gafford and fellow center Dereck Lively II. Combined, they rolled up 30 points and 14 assists. Gafford’s 16 points tied his career playoff high. He also had five blocked shots.
Gafford and Lively are becoming the best ham-and-egg tandem going in the NBA playoffs. They rarely, if ever, are on the court together. But they have a support system like no other for each other.
“When I check in and he checks out, he knows that whenever he checks back in, he’s got to pick it up higher than I did,” Lively said. “And vice-versa, every time we come in.”
Said Gafford: “We feed off each other’s energy. Whenever I’m coming out of the game, I tell him to be a monster. And he does the same thing with me.”
The pair was just that in Game 2 as the Mavericks went up 2-0 with a pair of road victories, leaving them two home wins on Sunday and Tuesday from the franchise’s third trip to the NBA Finals.
I
t wouldn’t be this way without their play on Friday at Target Center.
“Good tandem,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I thought Gaff was a lot better and D-Live is playing well. A young man who is a rookie playing late in the playoffs, the trust that his teammates have in him has shown. He’s going to be a special one as his journey continues. Our bigs were really good tonight.”
Lively, by the way, hit all six of his shots to go with nine rebounds.
“Amazing,” Dončić said of Lively. “He’s been amazing this season. These playoffs, he took not one, not two, three steps forward.
“He’s a rookie. I think people forget sometimes he’s doing this in the Western Conference finals, which is insane. His ceiling is going to be huge.”
And the production of Lively and Gafford was punctuated by the way the game ended, which was with Luka dancing around Minnesota center and defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert.
He’s a beast when patrolling the paint. But when he’s guarding Dončić outside the three-point arc, it negates much of Gobert’s defensive greatness.
Lively could sympathize. Every big man in the NBA who is worth his defensive salt has been in the position Gobert was in – caught in a switch on the pick and roll against a legendary, smaller offensive magician.
Someone like Dončić.
“Oh, it’s hard,” Lively said. “It’s really hard to move your feet and keep the angle of where you’re trying to send him to. We’re in the NBA. We have amazing ballhandlers.”
As Gafford said when he saw Luka’s game-winner developing: “The Luka shot? I was like, oh, that’s money. Most definitely. He got the spacing he wanted when it came to Rudy switching on to him. Rudy did his best to stay with him. I felt like Rudy got a good contest, but he got the shot high in the air.
“I’ve been on the same end of what Rudy was.”
But again, that moment in Mavericks’ history might not have happened without the playoff of Gafford and Lively, and the admittedly lucky shot Gafford pulled off.
“We work on those,” Lively said, trying to keep a straight face. “But being able to have shots like that, we see the basketball gods are with us. Seeing shots like that go in it makes Luka come down and take his step-back three.
“You got to get a little luck on the ball. It definitely never hurts.”
A little help: Kidd often talks about how the Mavericks win as a team and lose as a team. They got some help from a unique source late in Friday’s game.
When the referees ruled that a ball was knocked out of bounds with 47 seconds to go and the Mavericks down 108-106, the Mavericks challenged the call.
“I give a lot of credit to our bench,” Kidd said. “(Markieff Morris) made a great call to challenge. He said: let’s challenge it. He was on the baseline standing so he had good eyes on it. And that’s the trust. I trusted that (he) was telling me the truth to challenge it and we won that challenge.”
It was one of many things that went right down the stretch as the Mavericks scored the last six points of the game for the win.
Reality of the profession: News of the firing of J.B. Bickerstaff as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers resonated through the league on Friday, particularly when team officials said the move was not an indictment on the popular Bickerstaff’s work.
The Cavs’ upper management said they had “undeniable” success, but desired a different voice to lead the team.
“J.B.’s one of the good guys and one of the good coaches in this league,” Kidd said. “And it’s unfortunate, but that’s what happens in our industry. Good guys or good coaches get fired.
“Hopefully he’ll get on his feet because he is a good coach and a good dude. Things change, Cleveland has a plan. (Stuff) happens.”
Bickerstaff led the Cavaliers to the East semifinals despite a slew of injuries that included losing center Jarrett Allen for the entire series against Boston.
Minnesota coach Chris Finch worked with Bickerstaff for five years in Houston.
“It’s extremely difficult to see those things in the coaching profession after a run of success,” Finch said. “I know him well, like him a lot. Always admired the work he’s done. Every team he’s gone to has (been) tough to play against.
“It’s just the unfortunate side of our business. But I’m sure he’ll bounce back and often times you land in a better situation even though you don’t know it at the time.”
Kyrie Irving said that the impatience in the NBA is something that not only can impact coaches, but players, too.
“I think some people give up too soon in the first year, two years and try to put pressure on guys to be very successful right away,” Irving said. “And I think that’s unhealthy, man. I think you got to give people breaks and allow the transition to happen organically and allow the talent to mesh.”
Briefly: Mike Modano, NHL hall of famer and a hero with the Minnesota North Stars before he led the Dallas Stars to the 1999 Stanely Cup, was in the house Friday night . . . During halftime, the Target Center crowd started a chant of “Draymond sucks, Draymond sucks” as Golden State’s Draymond Green was a guest host on the TNT studio show live from the arena . . . Meanwhile, the crowd cheered on Shaquille O’Neal of the TNT crew when he joined in during the third-quarter karaoke sing-along to “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).
X: @ESefko
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