The Warriors won their seventh-consecutive game, earning a 130-112 road victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night.
The Warriors won their seventh-consecutive game, earning a 130-112 road victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night. Golden State put on a show from long distance, tying their season-high with 22 three-pointers. Klay Thompson scored a game-high 39 points with 10 treys, while Stephen Curry added 31 and six, respectively, of his own. With the win, the Warriors improve to 62-6 on the season.
GAME LEADERS
Golden State came into Friday’s game averaging the second-highest pace in the league, and the first quarter of the contest provided ample evidence as to why. Dallas scored on their first five possessions of the game to take a 10-5 lead just over two minutes after the opening tip. Klay Thompson missed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, but that would turn out to be his only miss for quite some time. After the Mavericks used a 10-2 run to take a 20-12 advantage with 7:36 remaining, Thompson responded with his first made three-pointer of the game to ignite both himself and his team. His next trey pulled Golden State within 26-23 with 4:55 left in the frame, and just over three minutes later, Draymond Green and Marreese Speights sank back-to-back threes of their own to give the Dubs their first lead of the night at 33-32. The Warriors would follow that up with three more three-pointers in the final 40 seconds, the last of which was Curry’s fourth of the frame and beat the quarter buzzer. Curry would add another point on a technical free throw that sent the game into the second quarter with Golden State holding a 42-36 lead. In total, the Warriors would combine to go 9-of-12 from long distance in the first quarter, with five different players converting at least one shot each.
Curry’s buzzer-beater proved to be some foreshadowing, as the Warriors continued their three-point barrage throughout the first half. Golden State made their first five three-point attempts to begin the second frame, including a perfect 4-for-4 from Klay Thompson, whose final make put the Dubs up 59-46 halfway through the second quarter. Draymond Green would make another trey on the Warriors’ next possession to push the lead to 14, but then the magic began to wear off. Thompson missed his next attempt, after which Dallas responded with a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to single digits. Golden State would add one point to their lead through the remainder of the half, as two free throws from Chandler Parsons sent the game into halftime with the Warriors up 73-67. The Warriors managed 20 assists on 27 made field goals in the opening half, but their offensive effectiveness was mitigated by Dallas’ advantage at the free throw line, where they received 20 attempts from the charity stripe to Golden State’s four.
After James Michael McAdoo opened the second half with a dunk, the Mavericks responded with a 9-2 run to pull within a single point at 77-76 with 9:06 remaining in the third quarter. The Warriors scored the next four points, but Dallas followed that with a 6-0 burst, capped by Raymond Felton’s layup at the 7:43 mark that put the Mavericks back in the lead 83-81. However, that would probe to be Dallas’ final lead of the game, as Golden State clamped down on the defensive end to rebuild their advantage. Curry converted a layup on the ensuing possession to tie the game and begin a 13-2 Warriors run through the remainder of the quarter during which the Mavericks would be limited to a single field goal. The closing burst rebuilt Golden State’s cushion to 94-85 heading into the fourth and final quarter.
J.J. Barea’s three-pointer with 9:13 remaining capped a 12-4 Dallas run to open the fourth quarter and pull the Mavericks within a single point at 98-97. However, Klay Thompson would single-handedly halt Dallas’ momentum. He’s score the next 11 points of the game for Golden State in a span of 100 seconds, concluded by back-to-back three-pointers to put the Warriors back up 109-99. The Mavericks would respond with a 9-4 surge to pull within 113-108 with 3:03 left to play, but that would be the last time they trailed by single digits. Thompson sank another three-pointer on the ensuing possession to spark a 9-0 Golden State run, and his final trey of the night with 1:16 left put the Warriors up 128-112 and the game out of reach. Steve Kerr put in the reserves, and Speight’s jumper with 20.8 seconds left closed out the scoring and the eventual 130-112 victory. With the win, the Warriors improve to 62-6 on the season. They’ll look to become the first team in the NBA this season to defeat San Antonio on their own home floor when they take on the Spurs tomorrow night.