Tuesday night in Dallas, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Golden State Warriors 116-113. The Mavericks’ four-game losing streak—their longest since February 2021—is broken by the victory.
It was a very erratic game. In addition to his game-high 41 points on 27 shots, Luka Doncic also had a game-high 12 rebounds, 12 assists, four steals, and a block. With 32 points, Steph Curry led the Warriors.
When the first quarter began, the Mavericks quickly built a 23-6 advantage, giving the impression that they would win easily. The Warriors nearly immediately retaliated and trailed by just one at the break. From there, the heavyweight match was just a raucous, back-and-forth affair with each team putting on a show pretty absurd shot-making.
At the end, Dallas blocked Klay Thompson’s attempt to tie the score at the buzzer, and the Mavericks scampered back to.500 at 10-10. At 11-11, the Warriors also suffered a relapse to.500.
Just let’s get to the important parts.
Seriously, this was a wild ass game.
Sincerily, I have no idea how to analyse this game. It was absurd. There were 800 travels called, Spencer Dinwiddie was sent off for an apparent unwarranted elbow to Jordan Poole’s chin, Josh Green resembled Scottie Pippen, and Steph Curry passed up a wide-open lane with less than 20 seconds left in the game while trailing by two points in favour of taking a three-pointer.
What else took place? Oh yes, with a two-point lead and a wide-open dunk opportunity, Dorian Finney-Smith instead chose to dribble away from the basket, draw a foul, and miss the ensuing free throw, which allowed the opposition to win Warriors may tie the game. On the game’s final possession, with a three-point lead, the Mavericks had all five defenders start inside the three-point line but still allowed Thompson to get open. He also missed!
Oh, and Luka Doncic appeared to be the basketball God. It’s hard for me to say whether Doncic has ever played a greater game. He put on easily the best defensive display of his career along with an incredible jump shot because he absolutely did not want to lose this game. He obviously ran the tank dry for this one. And it worked.
Obviously, the Mavericks didn’t play perfectly, and I could probably think of ten or so things that bothered or irritated me, but who cares. The Mavericks were in a real slump, and winning when you’re in a slump is rarely simple.
The last leg of a hole-digging project is always the most challenging. Although the Mavericks are probably not fully out of that hole,they have exerted significant effort only by snapping this abhorrent losing run. You only need to win and move on in this situation, which Dallas did.
I hope everyone’s heart rate remained steady throughout. Sheesh. Did I mention how wild this game was? It was a crazy game.
Josh Green has talent. That’s all there is to say, thank you.
Seriously. He’s great!
Okay, let me continue. Let me just say that Cocaine Bear, a new film that will be released early in the following year, is probably the best way to describe how Green performed tonight. like a bear in the wild that has consumed a lot of cocaine.
Green continued to show that his strong start to the season early is no fluke by scoring 13 points in just 27 minutes. He completed 3-of-5 three-point attempts, had one steal, and deflected and interfered with what felt like a huge number of plays throughout the game. It was the first time I can remember coach Jason Kidd choosing to play Green down the stretch instead of Reggie Bullock, and there was a glaring difference in their levels of activity and vigor. Green persisted in going after closeouts, scoring at the hoop, and executing crazy passes like his first-half 360-degree baseline pass to Davis Bertans.
When Dinwiddie was dismissed from the game and the Warriors took a 100-96 lead on a poor inbounds play by the Mavericks, it felt as though the Mavericks had completely lost control of the situation. On defence for the following Warriors possession, Green basically chased down whoever had the ball, knocked it loose in the corner, and dove out of bounds to try to save it. The entire incident took place directly in front of the Mavericks bench, which erupted in excitement along with the American Airlines Center crowd. After that, Dallas scored seven straight points, and, quite honestly, Green’s enthusiasm during that defensive possession may have been the game’s deciding factor at a time when it appeared that things were about to get out of hand.
The battle is over; there is little point in arguing about it any longer. Green should replace Bullock in the starting lineup, at least until Bullock resumes making threes, which should happen in about a week.
The Warriors’ starters were savaged by the Mavericks.
With Curry, Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney as their starting lineup, the Warriors had the best five-man lineup in the NBA going into tonight’s game. Consequently, the Mavericks kicked that lineup in the ass.
The eye test simply demonstrated that every single starter for the Warriors was negative in this contest. The Mavericks promptly went on a run to retake the lead after Warriors coach Steve Kerr put his players back in after the Warriors went up in the fourth as the game was nearing the halfway point of the fourth quarter. The Warriors didn’t regain control of the game until Kerr replaced Looney with Jonathan Kuminga in the closing minutes.
Dallas just destroyed the two-big lineup thanks to two factors: first, Doncic was about as focused as I’ve ever seen him, and second, he made 4-of-9 three-point attempts, which was necessary to punish that lineup from outside.
