DALLAS – For the second straight game, the Dallas Mavericks looked very confident in going toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the entire NBA.
This time is was the two-defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors who felt the wrath of the Mavs. Down by eight points with less than 11 minutes remaining in the game, the Mavs turned up their defense another notch and got out of American Airlines Center with a hard-fought 112-109 victory over the Warriors in front of a loud and boisterous sellout crowd of 20,260.
It was the fourth straight victory for the Mavs, who increased their record to 7-8 going into Monday night’s game in Memphis. It also was just the second time the Mavs have beaten the Warriors in their last 19 head-to-head matchups.
Down the stretch when the game was still hanging in the balance, the Warriors (12-5) kept flexing their muscles and throwing one haymaker after another at the Mavs. But the Mavs responded by flexing their muscles and throwing their own haymakers at the Warriors.
“When you play a team like that that can make breathtaking plays at virtually any moment, you just have to hang in and keep making playing,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “When we went down six or seven in the second half, everybody on the bench kept encouraging each other.
“We got the crowd back into it with hard and unselfish play and we found a way. Our guys worked incredibly hard to wear on them throughout the game and we made their shots a little more difficult.”
Mavs rookie Luka Doncic was smack in the middle of a slew of critical plays down the stretch. A floater by Doncic put the Mavs ahead for keeps at 109-108 with 1:10 left.
Kevin Durant then missed an 8-footer and an 11-footer, and Dorian Finney-Smith split a pair of free throws, leaving the Mavs with a 110-108 lead with 15.4 seconds to go. After a Warriors timeout, Klay Thompson misfired on a 16-footer, Doncic grabbed the rebound, was fouled and buried a couple of charity tosses that padded the Mavs’ lead to 112-108 with 7.2 ticks to go.
Afterwards, Doncic was complimentary of the way he and his teammates battled the Warriors, who played without injured All-Stars Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
“I just want to say it was an amazing game,” said Doncic, who scored a team-high 24 points and collected a season-high tying nine rebounds. “We did a great job, and they are the NBA champions for several times, so it was tough.
“But I like my team. I love Dallas, so we were playing great.”
Durant, who tallied a game-high 32 points, gave kudos to Doncic for being so aggressive and playing a solid all-around game.
“I like him a lot,” Durant said. “He’s polished, he is skilled and you can tell he played professional basketball already.
“They got a great guy in him to lead this franchise in the future. Him and Dennis Smith Jr. play well together.”
As a whole, the Mavs are playing so well together that no team in the NBA has a current winning streak longer than the four straight wins the Mavs have strung together. And once again it was the Mavs’ stingy defense that was at the backbone of this victory.
The Warriors shot just 44.7 percent from the field and missed 24 of their 33 shots from 3-point range, and seemed rattled when the game was still in question.
“I think it’s all about our defense right now,” said Smith, who had 14 points, six assists and no turnovers. “We’re doing a good job of locking in and rotating and helping one another.
“(DeAndre Jordan) is doing a good job of contesting every shot, so if we continue that I think the wins will keep racking up.”
The Mavs led 26-22 after the first quarter, thanks to 12 points by Doncic. But the Warriors assumed a 59-57 lead at the half, despite Harrison Barnes scoring 15 of his 23 points at that juncture.
However, the Mavs probably could have made things a bit easier on themselves had they not missed 12 free throws. Still, when key baskets needed to be made, when a big defensive stop needed to be made, the Mavs stepped up and completed those critical tasks at the most opportune time.
“I thought that Doncic and Barnes both carried our team offensively for a big portion of the game.,” Carlisle said. “We had some other really good team action, ball movement and good look at threes.
“Doncic is a guy that loves to have the ball and make plays, and Barnes is another one. We’re lucky to have two guys like that out there.”
The Mavs are also fortunate to have Jordan, who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds while registering his ninth double-double of the season.
“I think we stuck together as a team,” Jordan said. “Defense was our No. 1 priority. We know that they’ve got a few guys out, but the guys that they have are amazing scorers, amazing playmakers.
“So we just really wanted to come out and be connected on a string. I felt like we had each other’s back the entire night and that was great.”
Finney-Smith spent the night chasing Klay Thompson and did an admirable job. Thompson did score 22 points, but he took 24 shots and missed 15 of those.
“I just tried to make it tough for him,” said Finney-Smith, who scored 13 points. “We did a great job of everybody helping each other.”
The win came in the heels of Wednesday’s 50-point victory over the Utah Jazz. This also snapped the Mavs’ 10-game losing streak to the Warriors.
“We’ve got to build off this,” Jordan said. “We can’t get too high, we can’t get too low.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to harness this for 48 minutes and figure out things we did well tonight, things we need to clean up and take it to Memphis with us.”
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