An unstoppable Luka Doncic won the game over Stephen Curry and the Mavericks were re-imposed on the Golden State Warriorsthis time in Dallas, for 122-113 thanks to the 41 points of the Slovenian star. It is the second time in five days that the Mavericks have beaten the Warriors: on Sunday, the Dallas team beat San Francisco 101-107 after a loss by the locals who were winning by 19 points with 10 minutes left in the game. match.
Doncicwho had already scored 19 points in the first quarter, stayed on Thursday night at the gates of a new triple-double by adding, in addition to 41 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. For his part, Curry, who was not the top scorer for his team, had to content himself with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists after going to zero in the fourth quarter. In fact, the entire Mavs’ starting team finished with 10-plus points under their belt. Dorian Finney-Smith was the second leading scorer for the Mavericks with 18 points. But it was Spencer Dindwiddle, one of the new acquisitions from Dallas, who shone the most by scoring 17 points after starting the game on the bench. The leading scorer for the Warriors was Jordan Poole, who also started the game off the bench with 23 points. Andrew Wiggins had 17 and Klay Thompson 16. But one of the standouts on the team was rookie Moses Moody, who had 13 points, all of them consecutive in the fourth quarter.
The Warriors were never ahead on the scoreboard but in the last quarter, with great effort, they managed to tie the game 104-104 with 6:28 to go thanks to a great performance by Moody. However, the Mavs reacted, directed correctly by Doncic, and managed to finish the game with a margin in favor of 9 points.
From the start of the match it was clear that Doncic was especially motivated. The Slovenian, with Wiggins in front, the man who “stole” his starting job in the last All-Star game, rebounded, shot and assisted with precision. After four minutes of play, the Mavs doubled the Warriors on the scoreboard, 14-7, and Doncic was the author of half of his team’s points, forcing Golden State coach Steve Kerr to ask for an early dead time to recompose the strategy. It didn’t help much. Curry, who had scored a triple in the first minutes of the quarter, could not add more points and the locals increased the distance to 11 points, 38-27 at the end of the first 12 minutes, thanks to a successful Doncic who scored 19 points in the period.
In the second quarter, Curry was better able to shake off the defensive pressure from the Mavs and had 10 of the 27 points the Warriors had in the second quarter. But Thompson, Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II were scoreless and only Jordan Poole’s 8 points and Wiggins’ 6 allowed the Warriors to stay afloat. In Dallas, Doncic took a short break that Finney-Smith took advantage of to score 11 points in the fourth. When the break came, the Mavs were up 14 points, 68-54.
Warriors improve
After the break, the Warriors began to play better on offense. Curry moved the ball with more ease and the team was more involved, which allowed the visitors to reduce the distance to 8 points, 99-91 at the end of the third quarter.
At the beginning of the last 12 minutes, the reaction of the Warriors was maintained and for the first time the Mavs saw their victory in danger. Moody’s tackle for Thompson with 10 minutes to go was instrumental in keeping the visitors’ hopes up. Trailing 104-98 with 7 minutes remaining, rookie Moody hit two straight 3-pointers that tied the game 104-104 and forced Dallas to call a timeout. For more than five minutes, Moody was the only Warriors to score and with 2:31 to go he left the score at 115-111. But Curry’s inability to score in the fourth quarter doomed the Warriors in the final minutes and left the final score at 122-113 for the Mavs.