"Can Luka Doncic Outshine Anthony Edwards in the WCF Matchup: Dallas Mavs vs. Minnesota Timberwolves?"

Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving React to Dallas Mavericks Advancing to Western Conference Finals

When the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves played two preseason games in Abu Dhabi in early October before the regular season began, nobody expected them to be the last two teams standing in the gauntlet that is the Western Conference.

But now, here they are, ready to battle it out for a chance to reach the NBA Finals after the Mavs eliminated the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in six games, and the T-Wolves took down the defending champion Denver Nuggets with a 20-point comeback in a Game 7.

The Mavs lost both of those preseason games to the T-Wolves and three of their four regular-season meetings, but Minnesota hasn't played Dallas since it acquired P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford at this year's trade deadline. The Boston Celtics were the only team to win more games than the Mavs from the trade deadline to the end of the regular season, so the T-Wolves will face a completely different animal this time.

The biggest headliner going into this series will be the star matchup of Luka Doncic vs. Anthony Edwards, for good reason, but the cross matchups will also be interesting to watch. In fact, Edwards already knows who he'll be attempting to lock down, and it's not Doncic.

"My matchup is Kyrie [Irving]," Edwards told the NBA on TNT crew after the Wolves eliminated the Nuggets. "So that's going to be fun. We'll see what I can do versus him."

In four regular-season games against Dallas, Edwards averaged 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 5.8 assists while shooting 43.2 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Irving only played in one of the Mavs' four regular-season games against the T-Wolves, but in that one game, he finished with 35 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals while shooting 14-27 from the floor in a 115-108 win for Dallas. For Doncic, T-Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels has historically been a tough individual defensive matchup, but in two regular-season games against Minnesota this season, No. 77 averaged 36.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 10.5 assists while shooting 50.9 percent from the floor and 36.8 percent from deep.

Doncic didn't play his best basketball for the majority of the first two rounds of the playoffs while battling a knee sprain, but he looked much more like his superstar self in the final two games of the Mavs' second-round series against the Thunder. With three full days off before the beginning of his next series, perhaps Doncic is inching closer to being at full strength again.

“We won the series. That’s what matters in the end," Doncic said. "We didn’t have home [court] advantage, which is great. [It’s] great that we won. Struggles are going to come. You have to stay positive and keep hooping. You can impact the game in other ways, not just by shooting poorly. ... This group has been together for like five months. We’re capable of more and more."

We all know how important the play of Doncic, Irving, and Edwards will be, but the other guys will determine which team represents the West in the NBA Finals. Namely, the biggest question will be how the Mavs' frontcourt of P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford, and Dereck Lively II stacks up against the T-Wolves' talented big-man collection of Rudy Gobert, who is the Defensive Player of the Year, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Naz Reid.

Can the Mavs overcome being one big man short with versatile forward Maxi Kleber out due to a shoulder strain? As good of a three-year run as Jason Kidd has had as head coach of the Mavs, can he break the Game 1 curse and win on Wednesday night to set the tone of the series? In a postseason where Doncic and Irving have willed the Mavs to two series wins, can they do it at least one more time to reach the NBA Finals?