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Final: Mavs 112, Warriors 109

  • How many times last season would the Mavericks have lost this game? They hung around good teams all of last season, and have done so for much of this season, too, but were seemingly never able to cross the finish line in first place. Dallas was 12-38 in games last season when the score was inside five points inside of five minutes remaining. This season, the Mavs are 4-4, and a couple of those losses frankly weren’t very close. (The Phoenix game on opening night, for example, counts as a clutch game despite the final score suggesting otherwise.) In games truly decided within the final minute, the Mavericks are beginning to find their way. There have been hiccups, sure, against the Spurs and Lakers in particular, but scoring a win against Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson is something to feel good about.

    Luka Doncic is unbelievable, Dennis Smith Jr. made a big-time pass to a streaking Dorian Finney-Smith, Harrison Barnes hit a big pull-up 3 (wouldn’t ya know!) and DeAndre Jordan sealed the game with a block. Too many nights this season, the bench has carried the starters. Now, it was the starters’ turn. I think that’s your difference between this season and last; this season, the starting lineup is playing winning basketball. Credit whomever you choose, but this is a five-man game for a reason, and all five guys brought it against Golden State. The Mavs have now won four straight games and are looking to make it five in a row for the first time since the end of the 2015-16 season.

  • We give credit to every player, but we’re going to start with Doncic first. On a night when, to be totally honest, it didn’t seem like he had it going during the middle quarters, the rookie erupted down the stretch. He was “quiet” enough to finish with a 24-point, nine-rebound, four-assist stat line in a game when he was guarded by players such as Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Andre Iguodala, three of the better wing defenders in the entire league. But, with just over a minute left and the Mavs down by one, Doncic drove left to find that the Warriors switched Iguodala off him for Jonas Jerebko. Doncic responded with a surgical drive and score to give Dallas the lead.

    That’s not an easy shot, but he made it look as if it was. Beneath all the fancy dribbling and theatrics, that’s ultimately what the best players do. You look up and wonder when Kevin Durant or LeBron James got their 30 points because you take for granted not really being surprised when they score. Doncic finished with 24 and we’re just OK with it. It’s wild.

    He’s now shooting 11 of 19 in clutch situations this season, per NBA Stats, and has scored more clutch points (31) than LeBron and DeMar DeRozan despite playing fewer minutes and taking fewer shots than both of them. Only two other players in the top-15 league-wide in clutch scoring are younger than 25 (Zach LaVine and Joel Embiid). Crunch time is an old man’s game, but Doncic has already shown he belongs.

  • Don’t look now, but Dallas is 12th in offensive rating and 11th in defensive rating. Yes, the defensive numbers were skewed quite a bit by Wednesday’s win against the Jazz, but there’s nothing fishy going on with the offensive numbers. The bench play has picked up since Devin Harris’s return and the starters are beginning to find what truly works. For example, one thing we saw for the first time this season was DeAndre Jordan actively working to seal his defender directly under the rim instead of setting high ball-screens for Dennis Smith Jr. If teams are going to continue sagging way off on those pick-and-rolls, it’s almost a waste of time. The solution: Camp Jordan out under the rim where he can make himself a target. He must have drawn at least five fouls simply jockeying for position, which cleared the way for the Mavs to enter the bonus early in most quarters.

    They also turned to Harrison Barnes iso plays a little more often tonight, for two reasons in my opinion. First, he was very good tonight. Second, against a team as long and switchy as the Warriors, your offense is bound to get clunky at times. When it does, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to slow it down and play one-on-one. Barnes has proven he can score in those situations, and his 23 points on 14 shots would support that claim. He even hit two off-the-bounce 3s, one of which was a step-back, which was one of the more promising developments down the stretch last season. That would be a huge shot in his arsenal.

    As Doncic and Smith continue to discover all that their powers will allow them to do, the Mavs’ vets and reserves are beginning to find their rhythm as well. We are witnessing a convincing culmination of their efforts; in a matter of one week, the conversation surrounding this team among fans quickly changed from “do they like each other?” to “when was the last time we liked a Mavs team this much?” These are good times right now. Enjoy them.

    What’s Next

    The Mavs (7-8) have a rare instance where they travel east to take on a Western Conference rival, Memphis, on Monday. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

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