With their deficit against Golden State out of control and one of their key players suffering a significant injury, frustration set in for the Mavericks on Tuesday night at Chase Center.
Early in the fourth quarter, Kristaps Porzingis showed off his soccer skills by kicking the basketball into the stands. It wasn’t a gesture against the referees. More like a boiling-point reaction because Porzingis fumbled a ball out of bounds and, in the big picture, because of the way the Mavericks played against a team they had whipped by 17 points three weeks earlier.
While Porzingis apologized to the fans on his way to the locker room, nothing could console the Mavericks as the strange, inexplicable dominance they have had over Golden State recently vanished.
After having won four consecutive times on the Warriors’ home court, and taking seven of the last eight overall, the Mavericks got crushed 130-92 as Steph Curry led a slew of offensive weapons.
And the news got worse for the Mavericks when the team announced that Tim Hardaway Jr. had suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal on his left foot. He will be out indefinitely.
It was another “ouch” moment on a night that was nothing but painful.
“We weren’t physical, we were passive,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We waited and it was too late. There weren’t too many passes. There weren’t too many assists (17).
“We weren’t very good from the beginning. Luka was Luka at the beginning. We couldn’t get anybody to join him, offensively or defensively. We just couldn’t get in a rhythm offensively. And defensively, we weren’t connected.”
The Mavericks have had the NBA’s best defense since Jan. 1, but that ability to stymie opponents was nowhere to be found. The Warriors shot 53.3 percent, becoming the first team to top 50 percent shooting against the Mavericks since Brooklyn did it on Dec. 7. The last 24 opponents had shot under 50 percent.
Curry and Klay Thompson, still working his way back from Achilles surgery, were good, but didn’t have to be superhuman as seven Warriors reached double figures, led by Jonathan Kuminga off the bench with 22.
Luka Dončić had 25 points, but with another game looming Wednesday at Portland, there was no sense in playing him in the fourth quarter as the game was hopelessly out of reach.
That was about the time Porzingis booted the ball.
“Just the whole game, not going our way at all,” Porzingis said about his emotions getting the best of him. “Especially not my way at all. The frustration accumulated and I reacted wrong.
“I want to apologize to all those fans that were sitting right there. It wasn’t my intention to kick the ball toward them at all. Just frustration on my side.”
Then, he added: “Tough loss. Got our ass kicked today. The good thing is we have another one tomorrow.”
It was just one of those games, in many respects, as the Warriors looked like a rejuvenated team.
“They played amazing,” . We had no answer for them – 130 points, they played really good.”
And then, the Mavericks got the serious blow in the second quarter when Hardaway, who had started the game very hot with 10 quick points, had to be carried off the court after suffering the left foot injury that did not appear to include any contact with another player. He was making a drive toward the basket and when he came down, he kept his left leg elevated.
He made the two free throws but couldn’t move without the assistance of director of player health and performance Casey Smith and backup guard Theo Pinson carrying him to the locker room, where further testing commenced.
Before the game ended, the Mavericks announced that Hardaway had fractured the foot.
“We’re going to have to figure out how to play without him for a little while,” Porzingis said.
The Mavericks weren’t the same after Hardaway’s exit. The Warriors pushed ahead by a dozen at halftime and were up by 20 in the third quarter. The Mavericks didn’t have enough defense to give their offense a chance to cut into the lead.
And when it was over, the Mavericks were grateful to have a chance to flush this one with another game coming 24 hours later.
Twitter: @ESefko
Share and comment