Minnesota Timberwolves edge out Dallas Mavericks as NBA puts on a show for Abu Dhabi

The NBA officially staked its claim for the attention of Abu Dhabi sports fans young and old, committed and casual, on Saturday night with its biggest and best show yet in the city.

As the Minnesota Timberwolves claimed a 104-96 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the world’s top basketball league demonstrated how seriously its top brass takes its relationship with the UAE capital, after making its presence felt across the city for weeks.

The NBA Abu Dhabi Games pitted two of the league’s best young players, Dallas’s Luka Doncic and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, against each other for a pair of games at the city’s Etihad Arena.

This was no coincidence - both of these exciting scoring stars could have been built in a lab with the purpose of appealing to a growing basketball fan base.

The NBA flew in legends including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the best players in history, plus championship-winners Ray Allen, Gary Payton and Shawn Marion.

It attracted celebrities including Ronaldo (the Brazillian one) and Michael B Jordan (the Hollywood one), Grammy Award-winning rapper T-Pain and Lebanese singer Maya Diab, as well as the UAE’s own star MMA fighter Mohammad Yahya, to courtside.

The NBA also brought with it the small matter of two professional basketball games.

And after a comfortable victory for the T-Wolves on Thursday, Abu Dhabi fans enjoyed a much tighter contest on Saturday night.

Doncic, who had finished with 25 points in just 16 minutes on Thursday, opened the scoring with a three-pointer on Saturday on his way to another 18 in just 19 minutes.

His star teammate Kyrie Irving, who hit just two in his 14 minutes in the first game, missed out on Saturday with a groin injury.

But Edwards returned for Minnesota after