After Monday’s surprising loss against the lowly Kings in Sacramento, the Dallas Mavericks were an extremely angry group when they played Golden State on Tuesday night.
And they proceeded to take their frustrations out on the Warriors.
Fueled by a massive 28-0 run bridging the first and second quarters, the Mavs completely destroyed the Warriors, winning 133-103, behind a superb team defensive performance and 39 points, six rebounds and eight assists from Luka Doncic.
The loss helped the Mavs (34-27) redeem themselves from that disappointing outing against the Kings. Well, sort of.
“Everybody was pissed off because we didn’t play good right away (in the 113-106 loss to the Kings),” Doncic said. “I think we played really good defense today – the whole team. And that was the key to the game.”
The Mavs miraculously reeled off 28 straight points to go from being down, 12-11, to earning a comfortable 39-12 cushion early in the second quarter. Since the NBA officially started tabulating scoring runs beginning with the 1997-’98 season, that ties for the second-longest scoring run in NBA history, topped only by the 29-0 run LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers put on the Milwaukee Bucks in 2009.
It was a complete reversal of fortunes for the Mavs, who trailed the Kings, 20-3, less than seven minutes into Monday’s game.
“The way we started that last game, 20-3, we wanted to come out with that energy today, and we did a good job,” forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. “We put ourselves in a great situation in that first half.”
To put it succinctly, when the Warriors scored 147 points and defeated the Mavs by 31 points in Dallas on Feb. 4, they tallied 36, 38, 36 and 37 points in the four quarters, respectively. And when the Warriors poured in 132 points during a two-point loss in Dallas on Feb. 6, they tallied 31, 33, 37 and 31 points, respectively in the four quarters.
On Tuesday, the Warriors were in such a shooting rut that they didn’t get their 31st point until Stephen Curry nailed a 3-pointer — with 11:48 remaining in the third quarter. Although Curry scored 27 points, he wasn’t in any type of explosive mode like he was when he tallied 57 points against the Mavs on Feb. 6.
Carlisle credited Trey Burke for helping contain Curry, and that’s why Burke was named the Defensive Player of the Game and the recipient of the coveted belt for his impressive defensive performance.
“Chasing Stephen Curry around has got to be the hardest job in all of basketball – pro, college, international – you name it,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “The guy has been on just a historic tear over the last month, and Trey Burke rose to the challenge.
“He just chased him all over the place and we had plenty of help. Guys really worked in making it hard on him and we were making shots tonight.”
Starting forward Kristaps Porzingis (ankle) and starting guard Josh Richardson (hamstring) did not play for the Mavs. But that mattered not as the Mavs got it going early and often as the Warriors surprisingly never really posed a serious threat on this national televised game.
On this night, it was the Mavs who made it tough on the Warriors all night long. Dallas led 103-64 after the third quarter and by as much as 43 points (111-68) early in the fourth quarter.
Besides another rock-solid showing from Doncic in just three quarters of work, Finney-Smith contributed 13 points and eight rebounds, Hardaway finished with 13 points and seven boards, Nicolo Melli scored 13 points, Jalen Brunson tallied 12 points and Maxi Kleber added 10 points and six rebounds.
After falling behind, 12-11, the Mavs stepped on the gas and tallied the final 25 points of the first quarter and took a lopsided 36-12 lead into the second period. The 12 points are the fewest the Warriors have scored in any quarter this season.
It was as ugly as ugly can get for the Warriors, who made their first four baskets, but missed their next 18 shots, including going 0-9 from 3-point territory during the Mavs’ incredible 28-0 run. This also was the fourth-worst loss of the season for the Warriors.
The Mavs were simply in high gear all night as they added the first three points of the second quarter to jack their scoring run up to 28 consecutive points while increasing their lead to 39-12 lead before the Warriors finally scored. In fact, Golden State went nine minutes and 38 seconds without getting on the scoreboard, which is the longest scoring drought by any NBA team in nearly a dozen years.
“First of all it was a terrific defensive game plan by (assistant coach) Jamahl Mosley,” Carlisle said. “The defense got us going.
“And when you’ve got a guy like Luka Doncic and you’ve got attacking guards like Brunson and Burke and Hardaway, that’s what our game is all about. It doesn’t happen tonight without a really strong defensive effort and really strong attention to detail.”
When Doncic scored at the second-quarter buzzer, the Mavs went into the dressing room holding a commanding 62-29 lead. The 29 points are the fewest the Warriors have scored in any half this season and the fewest they’ve scored in any half since Steve Kerr became their coach in 2014.
Overall, the Mavs shot 52.2 percent from the field (48-of-92) and 51.4 percent form 3-point range (18-of-35). By contrast, after tallying 39 points in the fourth quarter during mop-up duty, the Warriors converted 40.5 percent of their field goals and 37.2 percent of their 3-point attempts.
“We got a lead early, we were able to sustain it and really kept the pressure on them through the whole game,” Carlisle said. “So it was a much-needed bounce-back after quite a disappointment last night.”
The Mavs will try to capitalize on what they did to the Warriors (31-31) when they play in Detroit on Thursday before returning home to entertain the Washington Wizards on Saturday.
“We’ve got to take this momentum tonight and turn it into momentum on Thursday night,” Carlisle said. “We’re just going to have to find a way to build on it. We just got to start another streak, and it’s not easy.
“When you have a little prosperity it’s always a little harder to dig deep, but our guys are ready. We’ll fly tomorrow (to Detroit), we’ll get some rest and we’ll get ready for Thursday.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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