Timberwolves vs. Mavericks Game 2 Betting Preview, Odds, How To Watch

The Minnesota Timberwolves played their hearts out in Game 7 of their Western Conference Semifinal against the Denver Nuggets, erasing a 20-point deficit—the largest in NBA Game 7 history—to get the road win to advance to the next round. They clearly weren’t ready for the Western Conference Finals, however, as they dropped Game 1 at home to the Dallas Mavericks, with a lot of Timberwolves citing fatigue for their shortcomings. Have they rested up for Game 2?

Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Dallas Mavericks NBA Western Conference Final Game 2 Betting Odds

All odds provided by Sports Interaction.

When to Watch and How to Watch Timberwolves vs. Mavericks Game 2

Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals between the No. 3 Minnesota Timberwolves and No. 5 Dallas Mavericks will take place at Minnesota’s Target Center at 8:30PM E.T. on Friday, May 24. Canadian viewers can watch the contest on TSN4 and TSN3 while NBA fans in America can catch the action on TNT, which is the exclusive broadcaster for this year’s Western Conference Finals.

Timberwolves vs. Mavericks Point Spread Betting Preview

Sports betting sites believe the Timberwolves players will likely get back on track after their “fatigue” in Game 1 thanks to one of the best head coaches in the league in Chris Finch, and we agree. Either way, they won’t have that same excuse in Game 2, so they need to make sure they’re fully rested by Friday night.

And while they did lose, it’s not like the T-Wolves were run out of their gym in Game 1, they only lost by three, and the game went right down to the wire. And the game was that tight despite Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards shooting a combined 12-for-40 and even Rudy Gobert shooting just 50 percent. Mike Conley was also just 2-for-7.

That’s kind of the perfect storm of awful shooting, and we don’t see that happening again in Game 2. Ant has been off for two games in a row now, so there’s no way he doesn’t explode in Game 2, but more on that later.

Towns was terrible, shooting nine threes despite having a big size advantage nearly every time down the court. He’s got five inches and 20 pounds on P.J. Washington, and we believe the coaching staff will pinpoint that mismatch and hone in on Towns getting deep in the post and using his size to get easy buckets.

Another thing to note is that Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are unlikely to be equally as dominant as they were in Game 1, when both of them had 30+ for the first time in this postseason. McDaniels was harrying Doncic all game long, and though he got hot late, the long and tough McDaniels is going to begin to wear on Doncic just like he did on Devin Booker and Jamal Murray.

Edwards will come out on fire on both ends as he looks to make good on his Kyrie Irving callout before the series. Dallas will keep this one close, but with Ant and KAT both being more aggressive and Minnesota’s suffocating defense locking in for a must-win game, they should be able to cover this -5.5 point spread at tasty -105 odds.

Here are a few NBA betting trends from this season to consider:

• Dallas is 56-39 ATS this year, second-best in the NBA
• Minnesota is 8-4 ATS in the playoffs
• Dallas is 8-5 ATS in the playoffs
• Minnesota is 17-24-2 as the home favorite this year
• Dallas is 12-11 ATS as the road dog this year
• Dallas is 40-25 ATS against Western Conference foes this year
• Minnesota is 31-34-2 as the favorite this year

Top Timberwolves vs. Mavericks Player Points Props

Anthony Edwards just doesn’t have three bad games in a row. It just doesn’t happen. In Game 7 of the second round and Game 1 of these Western Conference Finals, Edwards shot below 40 percent with under 20 points. He only did that one other time this season, and in the next game, he went for 37 in December.

Before these last two subpar performances, Edwards had only had under 20 points in back-to-back games three times, and he ended those bad runs with games of 37, 38, and 33 points. We’re taking Edwards to hit the over on his 27.5 points prop at -105 odds, as we believe he’s a lock to top 30.