Basketball week in Abu Dhabi ends with Timberwolves sweeping Mavericks

ABU DHABI: A week of basketball events across the UAE capital ended on Saturday evening when the second of two NBA Abu Dhabi Games 2023 saw the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Dallas Mavericks 104-96 at the Etihad Arena.

It completed a sweep of the preseason games for Minnesota after they defeated Dallas 111-99 on Thursday.

With the Timberwolves starting star man Anthony Edwards against a Mavericks team that included four-time NBA All-Star Luka Doncic, Abu Dhabi was treated to two of the league’s top performers facing off against each other.

Yet it was the Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid who led the points for their triumphant side, scoring 14 apiece.

After the game, Towns said: “As you can see, I really enjoyed it. I really dove straight into the culture; I really had a great time.

“I think I speak for both of us and our whole team when we say thank you so much to all the fans and Abu Dhabi for being so gracious to us and the generosity and the hospitality has been second to none.

“So, thank you so much to all the fans who made this so special, thank you to everyone here who’s showing us just how special basketball is to everyone here.

“We’re really excited that we got this opportunity to do it and we can’t wait to do it again and hopefully we’re invited.”

Tim Hardaway Jr., whose father was among the NBA Legends attending the event, said: “It was amazing, just the culture, the people, the interactions with one another it was amazing. We had a blast out here and are definitely looking forward to coming back.”

Wolves coach Chris Finch said earlier in the week that the atmosphere surrounding the two games had made it feel like more than preseason.

“Of course, off the floor, we had an amazing