DALLAS – Unfortunately, the Dallas Mavericks found out the hard way what happens when Stephen Curry has a hot hand.
Curry knocked down 11 shots from 3-point range Sunday night and tallied a season-high 48 points to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 119-114 triumph over the Mavs before a sellout crowd of 20,340 at American Airlines Center. The loss snapped the Mavs’ two-game winning streak and dropped their record to 20-23.
Overall, Curry was 17 of 32 from the field and 11 of 19 from beyond the 3-point line while proving his worth as one of the NBA’s best sharpshooters. Curry poured in16 points in the first quarter, eight in the second, 11 in the third and 13 more in the fourth as the two-time defending NBA champions finished the game on an 11-1 run while making more critical plays down the stretch than the Mavs.
“We just couldn’t keep Curry under control,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was brilliant. When a guy is at 27 feet and steps back with his quickness, he’s going to get some shots off.
“It’s not like he hasn’t been making these in his career, but look, we needed to play better, obviously. I’m not making excuses. I’m just saying he’s a great player, he got going and we needed to do a better job on him.”
The Mavs had a chance to tie the game and possibly send it into overtime. But while trailing 117-114, Harrison Barnes inadvertently dribbled the ball off his foot and out of bounds with 5.8 seconds left. Curry then iced it with a pair of free throws with 5.3 ticks to go.
“Look, he’s a pro, he’s been in this a long time,” Carlisle said of Barnes. “He’s a champion, he’s had the ball in a lot of big situations for us and for the Warriors (when he played for Golden State from 2012-’16).
“You’ve got to have a short memory and you’ve got to squash it and move on. I know he feels bad about (the late turnover). He’s a guy that’s a team guy, he wants to win, he wants to deliver for his team and his teammates and the fans. Look, mistakes happen and you just got to stick to the process.”
Barnes drained three consecutive free throws to give the Mavs a 113-108 lead with 3:51 remaining after Draymond Green was assessed a Flagrant Penalty-1 foul. But from there the Mavs missed their final eight shots – four of them from 3-point land – and committed two turnovers down the stretch.
After Luka Doncic split a pair of free throws to pad Dallas’ lead to 114-112 with 1:54 left, Curry slithered through the lane and flipped in a floater from 13 feet to tie the game at 114-114 with 1:39 to go. Then, Barnes and Doncic each missed 3-pointers that set the stage for Curry’s pull-up 3-pointer with 42.7 seconds remaining which accounted for the game-winning basket.
“The last two or three weeks I think our team has really been purposeful about how we are creating shots, getting looks and sustaining it over 48 minutes,” Curry said. “Tonight was obviously a pretty hot night.
“We needed every one of them with the way that Dallas played.”
It was the first game the Mavs played without guard J. J. Barea, who will undergo season-ending surgery on Monday to repair his torn right Achilles tendon that occurred during Friday’s contest against Minnesota.
Jalen Brunson (12 points) and Devin Harris (nine points) acquitted themselves well in Barea’s absence as the Mavs’ bench outscored their Warriors counterparts, 39-21. Harris flew in for a fast break layup and followed that up with a 3-ponter to complete a 20-11 run to open the fourth quarter and give the Mavs a 108-103 lead with 5:05 left in the game.
“I thought Harris gave us a great lift in the fourth (quarter) with his flurry of scoring, the drives, the three, a couple of loose ball plays, so he’s going to be ready and he’s going to be there for us,” Carlisle said. “Brunson is going to have an opportunity here to play more minutes — that’s obvious.
“He did a lot of good things. He’s getting some crunch-time experience in the NBA, so he’ll learn a lot in a short period of time.”
Meanwhile, Doncic finished with 26 points, six rebounds and five assists, Barnes tallied 22 points and DeAndre Jordan added 13 points and 14 rebounds.
The Mavs led 29-25 after the first quarter, but the Warriors (29-14) grabbed a 62-54 lead at the half.
In the meantime, Doncic was 8-of-18 from the field and missed all five of his shots in the fourth, including four 3-pointers, as he was heavily guarded by the Warriors.
“He’s trying to break the defense down and have a chance to score and get teammates involved, and some days you don’t make every shot,” Carlisle said. “That’s one of the things about the NBA.
“But he’s going to learn a lot from tonight’s game. He still generates a lot of things out there.”
Dallas outrebounded Golden State, 51-49, however Carlisle wasn’t thrilled with the 16 offensive rebounds the Warriors retrieved.
“I thought we did some good things,” Carlisle said. “I thought our effort was very good. You work hard to get that (113-108) lead late in the game, and finding a way to finish is what it’s all about.
“And these guys are the toughest to finish against because they can pop threes in. The other thing that really got us was the offensive boards. Giving up 16 second-chance points was a big factor in the game, too, and they came up with a lot of those.”
NOTES: The Mavs will not practice on Monday, but will resume practice on Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday’s home game against San Antonio. “Tomorrow’s an off day and we’re locking the gym,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ve been on a really challenging run in terms of scheduling and everything else. Everybody’s got to decompress. We’re going to have a good practice on Tuesday and then we’ve got San Antonio coming in here on Wednesday.”. . .Point guard Daryl Macon was on he active roster for the first time this season in the wake of the season-ending Achilles tendon surgery to point guard J. J. Barea and tightness in the back of point guard Dennis Smith Jr. On the prospect of being on the active roster for the first time – and the opponent was the two-time defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors – Macon said: “I think that’s why I’m so nervous. I found out who we were playing.” Macon has spent the balance of this season playing for the Texas Legends in the G-League. . .Smith is listed as day-to-day, but the Mavs are hopeful he’ll be able to practice at some point this week. . .Rapper 2 Chainz sat next to proprietor Mark Cuban during Sunday’s game. . .Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr reiterated his recent praise for Luka Doncic and he possibility of him making this year’s All-Star team. “I probably threw that out there without truly doing my homework,” Kerr said. “I do have a vote for (All-Star) reserves. I think what I meant to say is he sure looks like an All-Star. Whether he makes it or not, he’s an All-Star. Certain guys just stand out. You see what they do, you see what they mean to the game. If he doesn’t make it this year, he’s going to make it soon enough.” Kerr likes the way Doncic carries himself on the court. “I think just the confidence, the skill set combined with the confidence level,” Kerr said. “Coming in at 19-years-old nearly 40 games under his belt and looks like he’s been out here 10 years. That’s extremely rare, that kind of swagger, that kind of just confidence in his game, especially coming from overseas and living in the United States for the first time. All that stuff, you throw it together you can see his poise and maturity.”
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