Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic exploded for a 20-point first quarter in Thursday night’s Game 5 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Wanting to close out this series in five games instead of having to head back to Dallas for Game 6, Doncic looks motivated to punch his ticket to the NBA Finals.

As Doncic was amid his first quarter explosion, Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant reacted to what he was watching, sending out this post on X (formerly known as Twitter):

Morant has had some great battles with Doncic and the Mavericks in his young NBA career, as the two star guards are among the most exciting players in the NBA. Morant the Grizzlies want to get back to the playoff stage Doncic and the Mavericks have dominated this year. There will be a lot of competition in the Western Conference next season, but the Grizzlies believe they can be right near the top of the league.

This Mavericks run is a good blueprint for a lot of teams, because while there is no way to replicate a superstar like Doncic, Dallas was able to really upgrade their team at the trade deadline with solid additions. Often times it is those moves on the margins that can be the difference between a team that makes a deep run and a team that heads home early. 

For Dallas, everything starts and ends with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, but they have had a very solid supporting cast around them for much of this postseason. 

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On Thursday evening, the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves will play Game 5 of the Western Conference finals at the Target Center.

For the game, both teams have announced their injury reports (updated as of 2:30 Eastern Time).

The Mavs have listed Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively II as questionable, while Olivier-Maxence Prosper has been ruled out.

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves have listed starting point guard Mike Conley as questionable.

The Mavs have a 3-1 lead in the series, so they can advance to the 2024 NBA Finals with a victory.

If the Timberwolves stay alive, Game 6 would be back in Dallas on Saturday evening.

Most recently, the Timberwolves won Game 4 (on the road) by a score of 105-100.

All-Star guard Anthony Edwards led the way with 29 points, ten rebounds and nine assists while shooting 11/25 from the field and 2/5 from the three-point range in 40 minutes of playing time.

Whoever wins the series will face off against Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics in the Finals.

The Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.

Game 1 of the series will be on June 6 in Boston, so the Celtics will be more rested than either the Timberwolves or the Mavs.

The Mavs are the fifth seed and beat the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder in the first two rounds.

As for the Timberwolves, they are the third seed and defeated the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets in the first two rounds.

FC Dallas kicked off their three-game road trip on Wednesday night with a 3-1 loss to the LA Galaxy.

LA got two goals from Dejan Joveljic, including one penalty kick before halftime to secure the win. Riqui Puig added an insurance goal in the second half stoppage time after FC Dallas went down to ten men when Nkosi Tafari picked up a second yellow card.

Patrickson Delgado scored his third goal in seven days after scoring the equalizing goal tonight.

Joveljic got LA on the board in the 4th minute. Mark Delgado helped set up the goal with a long ball to Gabriel Pec, who then laid the ball off to Joveljic at the top of the penalty box for his first goal of the night.

Delgado tied it up in the 22nd minute for FC Dallas on another wonderful strike from the Ecuadorian. Paul Arriola played Marco Farfan out along the wings. Farfan sent a low cross into the penalty area that Delgado got a foot on and immediately redirected into the top part of the goal.

The hosts nearly got the lead back in the 30th minute as Goalkeeper Maarten Paes was whistled for a foul in the penalty area. Paes saved LA’s first penalty kick, his second penalty save of the season.

The Galaxy received another attempt from the penalty spot in the second half as they regained their lead on a penalty kick in the 66th minute from Joveljic.

FC Dallas was reduced to ten men for the game’s final few minutes as Tafari earned a second yellow on the night. LA made Dallas pay for that in stoppage time as Puig scored the Galaxy’s third goal.

Instant Reaction: Wednesday night games on the west coast suck. I’ll just say that right off the top here. FC Dallas responded well after going down a goal but the Galaxy have a lot of talent up top that is tough to contend with. The stat line isn’t pretty either, with LA picking up three goals, two penalty kick attempts, 25 shots and nine on target. FCD has a meager 9 shots total, with five on target and one goal.

You could tell late in the match that they looked tired and a bit gassed from the number of games they’ve had to play recently, too. Let’s just move on quickly from this one, shall we?

Man of the Match: Paes ended the night with six saves, including one penalty.

What’s next for FC Dallas: Another game in LA comes up this weekend, as FC Dallas takes on LAFC on Saturday night.