Write down the 6:06 mark of the fourth quarter in Thursday’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and GoldenLuka State Warriors as very significant. Because that’s when the Mavs grew up a bit and took their game to a much higher level.

Visibly angry and totally frustrated that a 24-second shot clock violation erroneously went against them, the Mavs regrouped and took their anger out on Golden State and went on to upend the pesky Warriors, 122-113, at American Airlines Center, behind 41 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists from Luka Doncic. It was the Mavs’ ninth victory in their last 11 games as they improved to 38-25 and moved 13 games over .500 for the first time since they were 42-29 last May 14.

But the precious win didn’t come without some jittery moments — and a bit of controversy.

After the Mavs bolted ahead, 71-54, early in the second half, the Warriors (43-20) got hot and knotted the game at 104 when Moses Moody came off the bench to nail back-to-back three-pointers — in between a Jalen Brunson turnover — within a 29-seocnd span with 6:06 remaining in the game.

What irked the Mavs occurred when Doncic rebounded a missed shot by Brunson. After replays showed Brunson’s shot attempt clearly making contact with the basket, instead of the shot-clock being reset to 14 seconds and the Mavs retaining possession with a six-point lead, the shot-clock kept running and Dallas was eventually whistled for a 24-second violation.

While coach Jason Kidd, Doncic, Brunson and nearly everyone inside AAC were pleading the Mavs’ case, play resumed, Moody buried his triples and suddenly, the Mavs were stunned and the game was tied at 104.

SpencerBut instead of burying their heads in the sand, the Mavs put their big boy pants on and quickly got consecutive baskets from Spencer Dinwiddie to go up 108-104. And when Dorian Finney-Smith drove across the lane and scored, the Mavs had seized control with a 120-113 lead with 56.3 seconds left.

“We have in the past maybe melted mentally when the ball hit the rim and there was no call, and then they came down and made two threes,” Kidd said. “It just showed growth.

“I was more looking at how we were going to respond with the no-call. (Bad calls) happen, but I think our maturity level was high and we responded in a positive way.”

Following the two hoops by Dinwiddie, Doncic aggressively fought to get into a one-on-one matchup with Stephen Curry in a switch on the perimeter. From there, Doncic dribbled down and scored twice over Curry on consecutive trips up the court to move the Mavs ahead, 112-108, with 4:07 left.

It’s a tactic similar to what Doncic employed in Tuesday’s victory over the Los Angeles Lakers when he coaxed LeBron James into guarding him one-on-one via a switch on the perimeter, and he repeatedly scored over him in a game the Mavs won, 109-104.

“I think attacking the best player is always good, because they’ve got to have energy on both ends,” Doncic said. “They’ve got to beDorian aggressive on offense, and if you get them into the offensive stuff, they can’t rest (on defense). So that was the point.”

The point also was the tremendous poise the Mavs displayed during crunch time after a crucial call – the play wasn’t reviewable by NBA rules — didn’t go their way.

“You can’t call timeout (and get the play reviewed), so you just got to play through it,” Kidd said. “That was the way it was explained to me (by referee Tony Brothers).

“They missed it, and it happens. But you have to keep playing.”

And because the Mavs kept playing, they wound up winning the season series against the Warriors, 3-1.

“We just stayed together,” said Doncic, who was 15-of-26 from the field. “Mentally, we’re there and we’re growing up.”

Fresh off winning the Western Conference Player of the Month for his solid work in February, Doncic fired in 19 points in a first quarter that ended with the Mavs comfortable ahead, 38-27.

“It’s incredible what he’s done here in the last month of February, and then continued to start the month of March off (playing well),” Kidd said. “He’s playing at a high level for us, and it also just shows it’s a team award too, because they’re not going to give it to someone whose team isn’t winning.”

Dinwiddie also has shown the Mavs that he too can be a prime-time player. Acquired with Davis Bertans in the Feb. 10 trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis and a protected 2022 second-round pick to the Washington Wizards, Dinwiddie has fit into the Mavs’ scheme of things like a glove.

That was evident by the 17 points and seven assists Dinwiddie collected against the Warriors, and by the fact that he was even in the game – in place of Brunson — during the late critical stages while playing in front of the home crowd for the first time since the trade.

“I wanted to get Jalen out because we’re going to play small, but (Dwight Powell) was playing great,” Kidd said. “So we let Spencer go, and then we were going to come back with JB and go small again.

“But that group went on a run and that’s just the way we finished. JB didn’t do anything wrong. That’s just the way we went.”

In the meantime, on that crucial basket he converted that all but sealed the game, Finney-Smith originally got chased off the three-point line.

“You know me, I wanted to shoot it (from downtown),” said Finney-Smith, who tallied 18 points. “That’s my spot in front of their bench, but they ran me off the line and I made the shot. The lane cleared up and I was just being aggressive.”Luka

Reggie Bullock took an aggressive approach, too, at a critical point of the game. Although he was just 3-of-13 from the floor at the time, Bullock nailed a huge three-pointer that padded the Mavs’ lead to 118-111 with 2:14 remaining.

“I think he was having a shootout there in the corner by himself,” Kidd said of Bullock. “The beauty of what Reggie is, he can miss three or four in a row and he’s going to make a big one for us. And that’s what he did.”

Bullock and Brunson finished with 14 points apiece, and Powell added 13 points and eight rebounds and had a huge knot on his forehead after he received a stray elbow in the second half.

JalenMeanwhile, Jordan Poole led the Warriors with 23 points, Curry scored 21 and dished out nine assists, Andrew Wiggins scored 17 points. Curry didn’t even get up a shot attempt in the fourth quarter although he played the entire fourth quarter.

“We executed the game plan,” Finney-Smith said. “We started trapping (Curry), but Moody came in and made every shot. But we’d rather have him bombing up threes than Steph.”

The Warriors shot 54.3 percent from the field and made half of their 30 attempts from downtown. In beating the Warriors for the second time in five days, the Mavs converted 52.9 percent of their shots and were 17-of-37 from behind the three-point arc for 45.9 percent.

More importantly, the Mavs are showing numerous wonderful signs of growth headed into Saturday’s 4 p.m. game at AAC against the Sacramento Kings.

“I feel like we’ve been holding each other accountable this year,” Finney-Smith said. “We’re playing great basketball. We’re talking to each other and staying together.”

And keeping their poise.

Twitter: @DwainPrice

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