DALLAS – Rick Carlisle doesn’t want anyone thinking that since the Golden State Warriors are mired in controversy, and are without superstar guard Stephen Curry, that they will be an easy pushover.
“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” said Carlisle, the coach of the Dallas Mavericks. “They have some turmoil, which usually brings out the best in a team.”
The Mavs (6-8) will host the Warriors (12-4) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT at American Airlines Center. It’s a Mavs team that is on a season-high three-game winning streak going against a Warriors club that have lost three of its past five games.
But from Carlisle’s viewpoint, all of that can be thrown out the window when these two teams collide on Saturday.
“I expect a haymaker at the beginning of the game,” Carlisle said, referring to what he anticipates from the Warriors. “I think they’re going to come out real hard.”
The Warriors suspended All-Star forward Draymond Green from playing in this past Tuesday’s game against Atlanta for conduct detrimental to the team after he got into a heated argument with teammate Kevin Durant on the bench during Monday’s 121-116 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. And when Green returned for Thursday’s game in Houston, he only attempted three shots and did not score in a game the Warriors lost, 107-86.
“I’m not going to get into analyzing their situation,” Carlisle said. “We got to focus on ourselves.
“They’re a great team, and so for 48 minutes we’ve got to put our best out there knowing that they’re going to come hard.”
The Mavs won’t have the services of guard Wesley Matthews (strained left groin). His spot in the starting lineup will likely be taken by Dorian Finney-Smith, who has sparkled on offense and defense this year for the Mavs.
In order to defeat the Warriors, Finney-Smith said it’s imperative that the Mavs continue to play some rock ‘em, sock ‘em defense. That was the formula the Mavs employed during their current streak of wins when they defeated Oklahoma City (111-96), Chicago (103-98) and Utah (118-68).
“The last three games we held them under 100 points,” Finney-Smith said. “But tomorrow, they’ve got a great team, great talent, so it’s going to be even harder.
“But we just got to put a 48-minute game together.”
Even without Curry, who has a groin injury, Carlisle looks at how stacked the Warriors are in a season where they’re trying to become the NBA’s first three-peat world champions since the Los Angeles Lakers won championships in 2000, ’01 and ’02.
“You’ve got three All-Star players out there,” Carlisle said. “You’ve got Durant, Green and (Klay) Thompson, and really good super role players, including (Andre) Iguodala, who was a finals MVP (in 2015).
“So they’re loaded, even though Curry’s not playing. We just got to play our game and play it better than they play their game.”
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