Minnesota Timberwolves' Naz Reid Slams Door on Dallas Mavs' Win Streak: 'He Was The X-Factor'
In the NBA, any player can go off on any given night. The Dallas Mavericks know this as well as anyone, as Dante Exum exploded for a career-high seven 3-pointers made in Tuesday's 127-125 win over the Los Angeles Lakers while being on a second night of a back-to-back.
Unfortunately for Dallas, it was on the other side of that coin at American Airlines Center on Thursday night against the top team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves three star players on their roster in Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, but reserve center Naz Reid shined the brightest, scoring a team-high 27 points while hitting a career-high seven 3s en route to snapping the Mavs' four-game win streak with a 119-101 blowout.
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“They’re good in both ways – offense and defense," Mavs star Luka Doncic said of the Wolves. "They have an amazing team. Ant [Anthony Edwards] is one of the best in the league for sure. I think there was one x-factor. Naz Reid – he’s an amazing player and he hurt us today. He’s been hooping.”
On the season, Reid averages 13.4 points while shooting 50.0 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from deep. In 13 career games against the Mavs, Reid has shot 47.8 percent from deep, which is his fourth-highest percentage against any team in the league. So with that said, maybe his performance on Thursday shouldn't have come as a surprise, especially considering that Dallas was playing its third game in four nights.
"He's had a great year for them," Mavs head coach said of Reid. "Ever since he's been in Minnesota he's been playing extremely well. Coming off the bench, he can put it on the floor, he can get to the basket, he's a big that can handle it. As you saw in that first half – and for pretty much the game – he can shoot it. We talked about him before the game and at halftime [we said] we've got to keep him off the 3-point line, and we just didn't do a good job. We've got to look at getting better at that."
The Mavs now move on and look ahead to Saturday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers, a team they beat 125-112 just a week ago as Kyrie Irving went down with a heel contusion. Irving remains out, and if he can't return to action soon, the Mavs will hope to have more career nights from role players go their way instead of it being the other way around.
