ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Dallas Mavericks and Monta Ellis paid a visit to Oakland tonight to face the Golden State Warriors. Chandler Parsons was out due to injury. The Warriors’ roster was at full strength.
1ST QUARTER: Curry’s Magic Dispells Bad Start
Former Warrior Richard Jefferson took the first shot of the game and scored a triple for the Mavs from the right elbow, then Klay Thompson inexplicably turned the ball over on successive touches. After Dirk Nowitzki followed by canning a trey from the top, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr nipped it in the butt and called an extra-early timeout with not even two minutes elapsed on the clock, with 10:43 to play, down 6-0.
A Stephen Curry long-range missile bailed out the Warriors again, even after Harrison Barnes came out of the timeout with his own miscue, mishandling the dribble on a nice strong drive from the left side. Curry played solid defense switched on a fading Nowitzki, then came back and drilled a triple on the other end. He also added a layup down the lane after Rajon Rondo converted a rare jumper.
But Thompson was still not quite himself, falling short on a jumper. Then Rondo hit a three-pointer after Klay blocked a shot by Tyson Chandler and Ellis saved the long rebound to Nowitzki, who found Rondo in the corner on the broken play. Rondo then answered another trey by Curry, this time from the right corner via Andrew Bogut, hitting a pull up after posting up Curry. That gave the Mavs a 14-8 lead with 7:25 to play.
Thompson finally got on the board with a triple from the right corner after Draymond Green drove the lane from left to right and, after Chandler got whistled for a bad screen, Curry drove the left baseline, flipped the ball with his left hand after circling it around his waist to a wide-open Harrison Barnes in the right corner. Barnes hit the trey from the short porch.
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The Oracle crowd smelled blood, but Curry missed the next two three-point tries to the backdrop of roars, the first of which he put the brakes on.
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Things died down a bit as Green drew a blocking foul while dribbling past halfcourt, then got an unexpected chest-check by Chandler. Green stared down Chandler and the referee blew the whistle, a technical on Tyson.
Soon thereafter, Curry displayed more wizardry, going with a no-look lefty dish, this time to a cutting Green who converted a right-handed layup. After Ellis turned the ball over to Steph, Curry pulled up from beyond the arc on the right elbow and Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle called timeout with the Warriors up, 20-14, and the crowd going wild in front of the nationally-televised ESPN audience.
Marreese Speights, who half-jokingly complained of lack of playing in time at yesterday’s practice, finally got some burn at the 3:37 mark with Golden State up, 22-16. Amar’e Stoudemire also made his first appearance for Dallas.
Speights started with good results, getting two interior buckets, but ended with bad results, called for technical for taunting after making his second interior bucket and not getting the charge on a Stoudemire post up as Mo flopped under the basket. Amar’e’s bucket trimmed the Warriors’ lead to 29-24 heading into the second frame.
Curry’s burst netted him 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting, 3-for-4 from downtown, while Bogut added 6 rebounds. Rondo led the Mavs with 10 points on 4-for-6 from the field.
2ND QUARTER: Block!
Shaun Livingston relieved Curry, who had played the entire first quarter, and at the ten-minute mark, Festus Ezeli subbed in for Speights, to the appreciation of the Oracle fans.
Andre Iguodala also had a nice track-down block of Al-Farouq Aminu, although he was tagged with a turnover on which he felt Aminu fouled him, to start Aminu’s break.
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However, Ezeli’s first touch of the ball was a turnover as he got the ball facing up Stoudemire, but decided to spin around and back him in, losing the ball to Aminu in the process. The error was compounded as Stoudemire blazed down the lane and received the pass for a foul by Barnes and the bucket, but Barnes would atone for it later with a three-point swish from the left elbow, delivered by Livingston.
That made it Warriors, 34-29, with 8:58 to go in the half.
Golden State then used defense to widen the gap, with Green playing exquisite defense, even against the length of Nowitzki.
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The Warriors’ offense wasn’t sharp nor spectacular with Curry and Thompson on the bench, and even as Livingston scored in the block against smaller defenders such as JJ Barea, there were still unforced errors, as Livingston accidentally jettisoned a pass to the corner about twelve rows into the baseline stands, the team’s 10th turnover — they would end the half with 12.
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But Green trailed Livingston on a play shortly thereafter and dropped a triple in front of Charlie Villanueva, shaping his hands into guns and putting them back into his imaginary hip holsters, giving the Warriors a 41-31 lead with 5:41 to play in the half as Carlisle called another timeout.
Golden State ended the quarter with the same solid defense they’d been honed in on, making good close-outs such as an airball shotclock violation by Jefferson with 2.7 seconds to play.
The Dubs also got lucky on a play where Curry dribbled off his foot, which would have been his fourth turnover, but somehow Thompson tracked down the loose ball and, in the ensuing mayhem, found Curry wide open in the right corner. Livingston happened to be in the area and used the opportunity to shield Curry from the pesky Barea, and Steph’s fourth triple in seven tries went through to maintain the cushion at 44-35 with 4:35 remaining.
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Bogut added a two-handed putback of a Livingston missed pull up and Klay missed a 30-foot running jumper at buzzer after Curry got doubled on the inbound with 2.7 seconds left after Jefferson’s miss.
The Warriors took a 52-40 lead into halftime. Curry led all scorers with 16 points as Golden State shot 8-for-15 from beyond the arc. They limited the Mavs to just 14-for-42 shooting (33.3%) and outrebounded them, 25-17. Rondo was still stuck as the Dallas leading scorer with 10. Ellis and Nowitzki were a combined 3-for-16.
Golden State had 7 blocked shots by halftime.
Apparently, one of the Warriors had a little fun with Green in his halftime interview:
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