Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving each score 33 points as Mavs beat Wolves for 3-0 lead in West finals

DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic lunged for the ball after a steal by Anthony Edwards, knocking it far enough away to create a scramble and a jump ball the Dallas superstar won.

The Mavericks made all the big plays again — on both ends of the court — and are a win away from their first trip to the NBA Finals in 13 years.

Doncic and Kyrie Irving scored 33 points apiece and Dallas put together a decisive run in the final five minutes to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 116-107 on Sunday night for a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

The 14-3 finish gave the Mavs a fifth consecutive playoff victory after Dereck Lively II left with a sprained neck when the rookie center took an accidental shot to the back of the head from Karl-Anthony Towns' knee.

No team in NBA playoff history has rallied from 3-0 down.

“Don’t even say it,” said Doncic, who will try to clinch his first trip to the NBA Finals in Game 4 on Tuesday night in Dallas. “But it feels great. But we’ve got to think about next game. Gotta play with the same mentality. They’re not going to go away. No way.”

P.J. Washington Jr., who scored 16 points, put Dallas ahead for good on a tiebreaking corner 3-pointer with 3:38 remaining after Doncic passed to Irving, who sent the ball to Washington.

The co-stars took over from there.

Doncic hit a shot in the lane for a four-point lead, Irving sent the crowd into a frenzy on a falling-down jumper and Doncic found Daniel Gafford for an alley-oop dunk and a 113-105 lead with 34 seconds left. Gafford had just blocked Mike Conley's layup attempt at the other end.

“They’re trying to double me the whole game, trying to double Kai, so that just makes us better,” Doncic said. “Everybody touches the ball, everybody plays. We come down to the stretch, and we execute.”

Edwards had 26 points for the Wolves, but just four after scoring eight consecutive points for Minnesota to get the Wolves even in the third quarter.

“I never think the sky is falling,” Edwards said. “I’m always positive, always happy. Been through the works, so the sky’s never falling for me.”

Towns scored 14 points but missed all eight 3s, including a rushed 27-footer early in the shot clock when the deficit was four with 1:25 remaining.

After taking a 104-102 lead on Kyle Anderson's floater with five minutes to go, Minnesota — which couldn't hold leads of 18 points in the first half and five points in the final 90 seconds of Game 2 — missed seven consecutive shots.

“You've got to try to score alongside of them,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “The whole series, we’ve struggled to close games. These three-minutes games that we’re playing, we’re losing.”

Doncic, whose game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds of Game 2 in Minnesota put Dallas firmly in control of the series, was 10 of 20 and 5 of 11 from deep.

Irving, who won the 2016 title alongside LeBron James with Cleveland, scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and finished 12 of 20 and 3 of 6 from long range.

The Mavs, with 2011 NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki watching from center court, are the closest they've been to the NBA's biggest stage since the big German led them to their only championship.

Edwards was 11 of 24, but took just three shots in the fourth quarter, making two. The 22-year-old star who has acknowledged fatigue in the series had nine rebounds and nine assists.

“We can’t be anything but positive at this point,” Edwards said. “We can’t be negative. Try to get one win at a time.”

In the second quarter, Lively absorbed the kind of contact normally found on football fields not far from Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, the quarterback-tight end pair sitting courtside.

The rookie from Duke stayed on the court holding his head after it snapped forward on the accidental contact. Lively was down for several minutes before appearing dazed as he was helped off the court and taken to the locker room.

Lively fell as Mike Conley, who scored 16 points, was driving for a missed shot, and Towns was pursuing an offensive rebound when his knee hit Lively’s head in the second quarter.

The 20-year-old Lively and Gafford, the starter, played a big role in helping Dallas take a 2-0 lead. Lively is 12 of 12 from the field in the series, including three makes in Game 3.

This story has been updated to correct the Mavericks' final run to 14-3 instead of 12-3.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) grabs a rebound over Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) celebrates a play against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) celebrates after scoring against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, left, and guard Kyrie Irving, right, embrace after their win over theMinnesota Timberwolves in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II (2) is helped off the court after he received a head injury during the first half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II (2) is checked on by teammates after a head injury during the first half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) celebrates after scoring against Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) drives to the basket against Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) scores against the Dallas Mavericks during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) shoots against the Dallas Mavericks during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) shoots over Minnesota Timberwolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker (9) during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots against Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson (1) during the second half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump laced into Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats on Thursday in a pointed and at times bitter speech as he headlined the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York.

Trump, in remarks that often felt more like a rally performance than a comedy routine, repeatedly criticized Harris over her decision to skip the event in a break from presidential tradition as she campaigned in Wisconsin.

She recorded a video that was played onscreen, but Trump called the decision "deeply disrespectful."

““If you really wanted Vice President Harris to accept your invitation, I guess you should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis and she would have been here, guaranteed,” said Trump, urging Catholics to vote for him in response.

“You better remember that I’m here and she’s not," he said.

The white-tie dinner raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally offered candidates from both parties the chance to trade lighthearted barbs, poke fun at themselves, and show that they can get along — or at least pretend to — for one night in the election's final stretch.

It's often the last time the two nominees share a stage before Election Day.

Trump delivered a number of one-liners that drew laughs. But he also questioned the mental fitness of Harris and President Joe Biden, commented on second gentleman Doug Emhoff's extramarital affair during his previous marriage, and made a joke about transgender women that echoed his frequent mocking of trans athletes on the campaign trail.

He said at one point that he would offer a couple of self-deprecating jokes before abandoning the effort. “Nope. I’ve got nothing,” he said to laughs.

“I just don’t see the point of taking shots at myself when other people have been shooting at me," he said, referencing his survival of two assassination attempts this year.

Of Biden, he said, “If the Democrats really wanted to have someone not be with us this evening, they would have sent Joe Biden."

Later, he said the current occupant of the White House “can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have the mental faculties of a child. This is a person that has nothing going, no intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris.”

In the video she recorded for the occasion, Harris appeared alongside comedian and actress Molly Shannon, who reprised her long-running “Saturday Night Live” character Mary Katherine Gallagher, an awkward Catholic schoolgirl. She also poked fun at Trump for comments he made in Michigan, saying that mocking Catholics in the video would be “like criticizing Detroit in Detroit.”

Harris’ campaign had previously said that, with less than three weeks before Election Day, they wanted her to spend as much time as possible campaigning in battleground states that will decide the election, rather than detouring to heavily Democratic New York. Her team has told organizers that she would be willing to attend the dinner as president if she wins.

Trump was joined at the dinner by his wife, Melania, who has been an infrequent presence on the campaign trail.

The dais included a mix of Trump allies and foes, with various entanglements. They included New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a successful civil fraud case against Trump and his business. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Trump after dropping his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, attended with his wife, Cheryl Hines.

Also in attendance were New York’s embattled Mayor Eric Adams and other top city officials, as well as business leaders and sports and media personalities. Adams was charged last month with accepting illegal campaign contributions and lavish overseas trips from Turkish officials and businesspeople — a case that was mentioned repeatedly, including by Trump.

Trump has claimed, without evidence, that Adams was targeted by authorities because he criticized Biden’s migrant policies.

“Mayor Adams: Good luck with everything,” Trump said, adding that what Adams faces is “peanuts” compared to his own legal woes and predicting that he will win reelection nonetheless.

He also went after former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was repeatedly booed by the crowd.

“To be honest, he was a terrible mayor," Trump said before offering a profanity at a religion-themed event. "I don’t give a s—- if this is comedy or not.”

The dinner was emceed by comedian Jim Gaffigan, who plays Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz on “Saturday Night Live.”

Gaffigan has a history of criticizing Trump. In 2020, he wrote on X, then named Twitter, that, “We need to wake up. We need to call trump the con man and thief that he is.”

Gaffigan largely kept his focus on others Thursday, but offered several pointed quips, including when he referenced allegations that the Trump Organization in the 1970s discriminated against Black renters.

“If Vice President Harris wins this election, not only would she be the first female president, a Black woman would occupy the White House, a former Trump residence,” Gaffigan said. “Obviously you wouldn't be renting to her. I mean, that would never happen anyway. Maybe if Doug did the signing.”

Gaffigan also mocked Harris for not coming to the dinner and joked about the Democrats replacing Biden with the vice president.

“The media has begun discussing the phenomena of secret Trump voters. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this — people who publicly say they would never vote for Trump, but then when they go in the voting booth, they do. It’s a small group. They’re called the Biden family,” he told the crowd.

Trump's tone echoed his appearance in 2016, when he was joined by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and delivered a particularly nasty speech in which he called her “corrupt."

“Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private,” he said to jeers. “For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.”

Mary Callahan Erdoes, vice chair of the foundation, alluded to that when she introduced Trump, suggesting she hoped for something less caustic.

“You never disappoint. Your wit is absolutely fabulous. And all of us together are going to hope for the best,” she said to laughs.

Trump, too, referenced the performance Thursday, saying that, in 2016, he "went overboard. That was like terrible. And I knew I was in trouble midway through."

That didn't stop him, however, from similar attacks, and repeatedly straying off-script.

The Harris campaign responded to Trump's speech with a statement saying it would remind “Americans how unstable he’s become.”

“He may refuse to release his medical records, but every day he makes it clear to the American people that he is not up to the job,” said spokesperson Ammar Moussa.

Trump's sense of humor is often cited by his supporters as key to his appeal. While he infamously glowered through former President Barack Obama’s jokes at his expense during the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, he also sometimes pokes fun at himself.

At several rallies this year, he has remarked on his hair after catching a glimpse of himself onscreen.

“What the hell can you do? There’s nothing I can do about it. We’re stuck with it," he joked at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, last month.

Both Trump and Biden, who is Catholic, spoke at a virtual version of the fundraiser in 2020, which was moved online due to concerns over large gatherings at the height of the pandemic.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is named for the former New York governor, a Democrat who was the first Catholic to receive a major-party nomination for president when he unsuccessfully ran for the White House in 1928.

The event has become a tradition for presidential candidates since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly because Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., and Cardinal Timothy Dolan listen. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., listens at the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arrives for the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Michael Bloomberg arrives for the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump arrive for the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., arrives for the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, center, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, arrive for the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., and Cardinal Timothy Dolan gesture as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump watches at the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump atalks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., at the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump arrive for the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves at Trenton-Mercer Airport, in Mercer County, N.J., before departing en route to Milwaukee, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris shake hands before the start of an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)