This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Dallas Mavericks.
3RD QUARTER: Monta Have It All, But Draymond Answers
The Mavs nearly slipped off the mountain as Klay Thompson began the second half with a three-pointer, freed up by what replays showed was Draymond Green slightly chucking Monta Ellis. Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle went ballistic on the non-call and immediately picked up a technical, giving the Warriors an early four-point play.
But two Dirk Nowitzki buckets along with a Harrison Barnes miss and an in-and-out Stephen Curry three-pointer preceded a 12-1 mini-run by Ellis and Nowitzki, which also included buckets by Richard Jefferson and a Tyson Chandler dunk after Ellis made a three at the shotclock buzzer, then lofted an alley oop to the Mavs’ center.
At one point, Marreese Speights, who was slightly off his usual “Mo Buckets” self this game, lost his shoe and had to defend Chandler in the paint with the shoe still in the Warriors’ frontcourt. Andre Iguodala got the defensive rebound and when the Warriors crossed halfcourt, Curry tossed the shot to Speights, but Chandler deflected the pass. Meanwhile, Iguodala got fouled dribbling the ball into the frontcourt. There was no technical foul as Chandler got his shoe block on the statboard.
Even though Dallas got called for a blocking foul on the ball as Chandler was foiling Speights’ shoe quest, and while Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was desperately trying to call timeout, things got a little weirder as Curry messed up a change-of-direction between-the-legs dribble against Jameer Nelson and Nelson fell on the ball, creating a jump ball situation.
Curry won the tip, but the ball went into yet another scrum involving Green, who couldn’t call timeout before the ensuing held ball. Jefferson tipped the tip by Green and the ball went out of bounds. With just five seconds on the shotclock, Iguodala passed the ball to Thompson, who dribbled too much before finally passing to Speights, who had to jettison to jumper, way too hard off the glass, with the shotclock about to expire.
Then Green brought order to the Warriors offensive chaos, posting up on the smaller Jae Crowder as Carlisle decided to try and shake things up, going with an extra-diminutive lineup of J.J. Barea, Nelson, Ellis, Crowder, and Nowitzki. Green then got fouled by Ellis on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws.
After a beautiful up-and-scoop driving layup into the lane right-to-left by Curry, Crowder got a dunk on a nice Nelson feed, but Green asserted himself again, finding himself posted up on Barea after Curry and Livingston played hand-off up top.
This was after another sequence in which the Warriors continued to play great defense as Nelson was caught in between a dribble and a pass to Nowitzki, who was probably standing too close to Nelson, and Curry ran away with the ball to the front court. However, Devin Harris stayed between Curry and Livingston on the break and Livingston couldn’t handle Curry’s last-second shuffle pass.
As soon as Curry made the entry pass, from the left block, Green wheeled toward the baseline on Barea, who grabbed Green, and Green, without the ball ever changing his hands, completed an and-one with only his right hand.
Nowitzki closed out with a layup with five seconds remaining in the third frame after a Livingston turnover, and the Warriors headed into the fourth with an 87-68 lead.
4TH QUARTER: Nothing But Defense!
The mismatches created by Carlisle’s going small both helped and hurt, as Thompson got an easy turnaround over the much shorter Barea, but Barea took Barnes at the other end off the dribble.
Livingston got his long arm on a defensive rebound, passed it forward to Iguodala, who tried a euro-step to finish the break but missed too hard, and Barnes followed the two with a flush on the putback. That caused Carlisle to call timeout with the Mavs still down 91-72 and 9:56 to go.
Livingston continued to negate the small-ball with a post-up turnaround jumper on Barea, then Curry checked back in to close things out. Nowitzki then nudged Barnes into Ellis on a pick-and-roll, and with 7:21 to go the Mavs found themselves still down 94-79.
The #SplashBrothers teamed up, but this time on defense, as Thompson swarmed onto Tyson Chandler with help on the inside, tap-blocked the ball down, which Chandler recovered, but then bounce-passed straight into Curry’s hands and Steph came back into the paint to help as well.
Back on defense for the Mavs, Chandler came out to 35 feet to double Curry, who got the ball to Green up top, who almost didn’t meet the pass in time, and Draymond got the ball to a hard-cutting Barnes on the left, and Barnes finished with a strong reverse layup.
Dallas tried their best to chip away as Ellis blew past the perimeter and lofted his trademark finger rolls on the way up. To Monta’s credit, Warriors broadcaster boasted that no one in the NBA gets to the rim with such explosive regularity as Ellis and Kyrie Irving.
Jefferson fed to Nowitzki who fed to Brandan Wright, who got an and-one call on Andre Iguodala. It was not a smart foul by Iguodala and Wright closed the gap to 100-88 with the free throw, with 3:29 remaining.
Green then got two straight blocked shots, the second of which was on a patented Nowitzki shoulder drive. Green tapped his own chest and yelled out in celebration as the Warriors went on a fastbreak on the other end.
Both teams couldn’t make a bucket and, obviously, that benefitted the Warriors as time expired. An Ellis three-pointer with 56.6 left got the Mavs to within 102-95, but even after Livingston missed both his free throws, Ellis missed his next three-pointer. Jefferson got the offensive rebound, but Barnes stripped it away, his second strip of the ball under the basket in the quarter.
Curry finished off the Mavs from the charity stripe and the final score was 105-98.
Curry scored 29 points on 9-for-22 field, 3-for-11 downtown, 8 assists, 2 steals, and just 1 turnover. Thompson added 25 points on 10-for-21 shooting, 5-for-11 from beyond the arc, and Green contributed 20 points, 8 rebounds. Barnes led the team with 9 rebounds.
The Mavericks were led by Ellis with 24 points on 8-for-22 field, while Nowitzki added 23 points. Jefferson grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds. Nelson led the losing team with 5 assists.
The Golden State Warriors shot 44.6% from the field while the Dallas shot 40.4%.
After their win, the Warriors are now 20-2 and the Mavericks fall to 17-8 after their loss.
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