Two more former Duke basketball players booked their tickets to the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
The Dallas Mavericks, the team of Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II, defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves for the fourth time, a 124-103 victory that clinched the Western Conference finals.
Irving scored 36 points and finished with four rebounds and five assists for the game, and the veteran guard averaged 27.0 points for the five-game series. He scored at least 30 points in six of his 17 playoff games this postseason.
Lively, who earned national adoration for his second-round performance just weeks after his mother passed away, did not play in Game 4 due to a neck injury after a knee to the head. However, he added nine points and eight rebounds in the clinching win. In the rookie’s last six playoff appearances, he’s finished with three double-doubles and averaged 10.2 points and 9.3 rebounds without playing more than 30 minutes in any game.
Both players were first-round draft picks after a single season with the Blue Devils. The Cleveland Cavaliers took Irving with the first pick in the 2011 NBA draft, and Lively ended up on the Mavericks after he went with the 12th pick in 2023.
This will obviously be Lively’s first Finals appearance as a rookie, but Irving already made three Finals alongside LeBron James in Cleveland. The duo defeated Golden State after trailing 3-1 in 2016 for Irving’s first NBA title, and the former Blue Devil averaged 30.0 points per game over the three-game comeback.