Tuesday night in Texas, the Golden State Warriors avoided embarrassing themselves, but the Dubs will be kicking themselves after falling to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks 116-113.
The Dubs’ season-worst opening quarter saw them fall behind 23-6. The Mavericks, headed by Doncic, had total control of the game on both sides of the floor and profited from officials eager to flag fouls all night. Given how poorly the Warriors’ bench units have performed this season, it appeared that things might become ugly.
On the other hand, the Warriors’ bench stepped up and put on their most significant game of the year. Even though Steph Curry played the whole first quarter, the Dubs’ situation improved as head coach Steve Kerr started using the bench.
The Warriors ended the first quarter down by a more reasonable 36-24 score after halting the Mavericks’ momentum with an 8-3 surge.
Jordan Poole, Donte DiVincenzo, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green, and Anthony Lamb’s new and improved team, which begins the second and fourth quarters, once again appeared to be a game-changing unit.
On both ends of the court, Kuminga appeared more at ease than he had throughout the entire season. Thanks to his length and quickness, he was a loose defensive player who covered a lot of territories. He was a powerful presence on the glass and as an on-ball defender. He nearly entirely depended on receiving dump-offs around the rim for simple dunks when playing offense to prevent his propensity for tunnel vision. Even though James Wiseman could not secure a position on the Dubs’ second unit, Kuminga appears to have stepped up and taken his place.
Curry made a three-pointer in the paint before the first half ended to knot the score at 45. Despite the Mavericks ‘ response, Dallas only had a 55-54 lead at the break.
Dallas swiftly developed an eight-point lead in the third quarter as the Dubs starters struggled to get going. But the Warriors’ bench limited the damage, just as in the first half. The Mavs were in the lead 92-87 going into the fourth quarter.
Again, the Warriors’ genuine momentum came from the Poole-DiVincenzo-Kuminga-Lamb-Green trio. Draymond made a pair of layups to open the quarter before Spencer Dinwiddie elbowed Jordan Poole.
It was deemed a common foul on the court, but it was clearly a Flagrant 1. Following a review of the game’s video, the officials made overly-sensitive calls, ejecting Dinwiddie from the match with a Flagrant 2.
Dallas swiftly developed an eight-point lead in the third quarter as the Dubs starters struggled to get going. But the Warrior’s bench limited the damage, just as in the first half. The Mavs were in the lead 92-87 going into the fourth quarter.
Again, the Warriors’ genuine momentum came from the Poole-DiVincenzo-Kuminga-Lamb-Green trio. Draymond made a pair of layups to open the quarter before Spencer Dinwiddie elbowed Jordan Poole.
With three minutes remaining in regulation with the Warriors down 108-104, Kuminga drilled an open corner three to cut the deficit to one. Following a stop, Doncic did an outstanding job predicting the Warriors’ playbook and almost intercepted a ball intended for Curry in the corner. But he didn’t. The Dubs took the lead as Steph successfully blocked the fiercely contested shot.
Tim Hardaway Jr. responded by making three of his own to give Dallas the lead. With 59 seconds left in regulation, Doncic made a mid-range fadeaway to provide the Mavs with a 115-112 lead less than a minute later.
The Warriors were able to reduce the deficit to two after an away-from-the-play foul. On the following possession, Curry had an opportunity to tie the score with an open layup but instead kicked the ball out in pursuit of a three. When Klay Thompson was free, he passed the ball to Poole, who missed the corner three, but a solid defensive rotation forced him to do so.
With 18.2 seconds remaining, Hardway had a chance to win the game with a three-pointer, but he missed it, giving the Warriors another opportunity.
Curry, down 115-113, weaved around two Mavericks defenders and a screen before pump-faking. However, a whistle blew before he could make a shot, and he was given travel. The Warriors had to foul since the shot clock had expired.
The Warriors put Dorian Finney-Smith, who has a career free-throw shooting percentage of 72.0%, at the line after the team kept the ball away from Dallas’ best shooters. He succeeded in his first effort but failed in his second.
With 4.1 seconds left, the Dubs were down 116-113. They required three. Thompson had an open shot from the left wing thanks to a tremendous in-bounds play by Kerr, but the ball rattled off the front iron and was rebounded by Doncic with seconds remaining.
The most astounding stat line of the evening belonged to Doncic, who finished with a triple-double of 41 points, 12 assists, and 12 rebounds. He also had the best plus/minus (+22) among the Mavericks. Dinwiddie had 14 points at his ejection, while Hardaway Jr. contributed 22. Off the bench, Josh Green scored 13 points more.
Curry scored 32 points, had five rebounds, and five assists to lead the Warriors in scoring. Kuminga finished second on the squad with 14, while five other Dubs scored in the double digits. He had a team-best +21 and added ten rebounds. In contrast to Kuminga, Andrew Wiggins had his poorest game of the year, scoring 10 points and pulling down only one rebound while shooting 4-for-11 from the floor and 1-for-2 from the charity stripe.
The Warriors, who are currently 11-11 overall, will welcome the Bulls to their home court on Friday. The first tip-off is set for 7:00 PM Pacific time.