Abu Dhabi (AFP) – The Minnesota Timberwolves renewed their victory over the Dallas Mavericks 104-96 on Saturday at Al-Ittihad Arena in the second preparatory match for the two teams in Abu Dhabi in preparation for the new season of the American Professional Basketball League (NBA).
Published on: 07/10/2023 – 21:07
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The Timberwolves beat Dallas in the first game 111-99.
Similar to Thursday’s confrontation, Minnesota took the initiative early and ended the first quarter with a 29-20 lead thanks to the brilliance of the duo: Anthony Edwards, who was absent from the first match, and Dominican Karl-Anthony Towns, with the former scoring 10 points and the latter 7.
Minnesota increased the lead in the second quarter to 19 points (51-32), but the points of Slovenian Luka Doncic, whose team missed his double with the absent Kyrie Irving, kept Dallas in the atmosphere of the match despite the end of the first half in favor of eighth in the Western Conference last season, 53-43.
With Doncic, who had scored 18 points in the first half, left to rest, Dallas was affected and Minnesota returned to raise the lead in the third quarter (67-50) and then ended it 81-70.
Dallas’ uprising was not complete in the fourth quarter when it turned a 16-point deficit (89-73) into two points (93-91) after Naz Reed and his teammates increased the gap until it reached 8 points at the end of the game.
Towns and Naz scored 14 points each for Minnesota, and Jaden Hardy was the best in Dallas in the match with 22 points.
The Emirati capital will host the two matches, as part of a partnership for years between the American National Basketball Association and the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, which was launched in 2022 between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks, who won the two matches (123-113 and 118-109).
The oil-rich Gulf countries have invested in basketball recently, by hosting preliminary matches in Abu Dhabi, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund acquiring a stake in the group that owns the Washington Wizards basketball club, and Doha winning the honor of hosting the Men’s World Cup in 2027.
“The King” LeBron James, the star of the Los Angeles Lakers, also visited Saudi Arabia in September, and participated in two training sessions with the players of the Saudi youth basketball team and some players of the women’s first team.
The Gulf region is also attracting an increasing number of major sporting events, including the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and hosting four races in the Formula One World Championship this season in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah and Doha, in addition to golf, tennis and heavyweight boxing.
Saudi Arabia announced its intention to bid to host the 2034 World Cup, after it had entered strongly into the football transfer market, adding to its professional league a large number of game stars, starting with the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who opened the era of attraction to the Kingdom with huge salaries from the largest exporter of crude oil in the world. the world.
© 2023 AFP
2023-10-07 19:07:05
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