ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Dallas Mavericks were in town to face the Golden State Warriors. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had a full 15-man roster available to him tonight and he listed James McAdoo and Ognjen Kuzmic as inactive. Meanwhile, the Mavs did not have Rajon Rondo, as he was nursing an orbital fracture.
Before player intros, the Warriors honored Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson pregame with their All-Star jerseys. #Roaracle also gave former Warrior Monta Ellis a loud ovation:
Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry with their All Star Jerseys #LetsGoWarriorsLive pic.twitter.com/RkGv3b1I3A
— Let’s Go Warriors 💦💛💙 (@LetsGoWarriors) February 5, 2015
1ST QUARTER: Carlisle Moves His Chess Pieces
Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle had the first attack strategically on Kerr, getting power forward Dirk Nowitzki switched on defense by Thompson while running some action with Ellis to enable that.
After Chandler Parsons hit a runner, Tyson Chandler a jumper, Nowitzki a baseline turnaround fade against Klay, two free throws by JJ Barea after beating Curry off the dribble on the left side, and a layup by Parsons thanks to a cut facilitated by, once again, Dirk’s being covered by Klay, Dallas had an early lead of 10-2 with 8:32 to go in the first frame.
The Warriors couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end, either, as Thompson missed a turnaround jumper against Ellis, then threw the ball too high and off-kilter on an alley-oop attempt to Andrew Bogut after Klay drove the baseline. Thompson had three early misses as well and the Warriors’ only bucket came on one of those misses, a layup left side, left-handed, that went too hard off the backboard. Luckily, Bogut was there for the putback.
After the layup by Parsons, Kerr had seen enough and called his first timeout. Out of the timeout, Thompson got a jumper to swish after rubbing off a Bogut screen that knocked Ellis aside, but Curry committed two straight turnovers and Chandler had a dunk on the other end, wide open under the basket, as Bogut was caught in transition trying to foul and disrupt the fastbreak.
All of a sudden, the Warriors were down 17-4 with 7:24 to go.
After a Barea jumper enabled by a Chandler screen on Curry up top, and a missed layup among four Mavs by Draymond Green, Kerr was forced to call his second timeout and Golden State found itself down 21-4 with 6:05 remaining.
Kerr inserted Andre Iguodala and David Lee for Harrison Barnes and Green, respectively, but on the “after-timeout play”, Curry found a seam into the paint and got blocked by Al-Farouq Aminu.
Thompson, assisted by Curry who got the quick outlet from Lee, finally got going with a three-pointer after Barea missed a left-side banker, but Ellis quieted the “DE-FENSE”-chanting Oracle crowd with a layup on the other end. However, Curry managed to drill a three from the left elbow with Barea grazing him, and Carlisle got out his fire extinguisher and called timeout, now that the tempo of the game had sped up, with the Mavs leading 26-10 and 4:33 to play.
Aminu came alive as he got an open layup from some action with Ellis, a dunk from some action with Parsons, and a corner trey after Devin Harris made a great save in front of the Mavs bench and also the extra pass to Aminu.
Meanwhile, the Warriors had to go out of their regular system to stay afloat, as Curry was forced to double-clutch and shoot a three with the shotclock winding down and Barea all over him. The shot wasn’t close and clanged too hard, but Iguodala got the offensive rebound, got smothered on the baseline, and found Curry again from the same left elbow. This time, Curry splashed it through.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
After another splash by Curry, in which he started to run back on defense before it swished from the right side, Curry almost lost the ball at the top of the free throw circle and Aminu swarmed on him to try and get the jumpball call. But Steph turned slightly to avoid him, found Lee open in the middle, and Lee dished it to Barnes for a two-handed slam.
That made it 40-23 with 37 seconds to play, but Aminu somehow broke free again behind the Warriors’ defense and, as he slammed it home with an assist by Barea, Oracle let out an exasperated groan.
Lee finished up the quarter getting hacked on a left-side attack and made both free throws and the Mavs took a big 42-25 lead into the second frame, with a balanced attacked all five starters scored and Charlie Villanueva added two treys to their cause.
Curry led the Dubs with 11 points on 4-for-8 from the field, but the Warriors shot a combined 9-for-21 (42.9%) while the Mavericks were 17-for-26 and led the rebounding department, 13-6.
2ND QUARTER: Dubs Climb Back
With the #SplashBrothers on the bench, it was up to Green and the bench unit to start inching the Warriors back into the game. Green was the energetic leader he proclaimed himself to be this season, rebounding a miss and finding Leandro Barbosa for a three-pointer, recovering on in-transition defense to swat Aminu under the rim after Aminu initially misplayed an alley-oop to him, and making the extra pass to Marreese Speights for a strong bucket in the paint against Chandler and Nowitzki.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Dirk then attempted a left baseline fade-away on Green, but Draymond played perfect defense, closing out with stutter-stepping feet and his seven-foot wingspan with both hands up, forcing the miss. The deficit was cut to 47-32 for Golden State with 9:14 left in the half and there was a break in the action for a mandatory TV timeout.
The Warriors continued to chip away at the lead as, out of the timeout, Thompson subbed in and got an easy bucket cutting to the lane and receiving the dime on the set play from Speights. After two straight turnovers by Ellis and Ray Felton, Shaun Livingston drilled a running jumper — this after a sweet behind-the-back pass to a cutting Speights who was fouled and converted both free throws — and Carlisle called another timeout.
Oracle was on its feet and the Dubs had cut the Mavs lead to single-digits, 47-38, with 7:05 to play in the half.
Iguodala then put his stamp on the game, getting a nasty swat…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…then by crossing Villanueva over, stopping on a dime, spinning back, missing the shot short, but Speights got the tip-in and the Warriors were down just 47-40 with 6:11 remaining. Curry then subbed in for Iguodala, who got a big hand from the crowd as he sat down.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
After Villanueva missed a jumper early in the shotclock, Curry led the break, made a shot fake to get Barea off-kilter, took Barea into the paint, slipped, recovered, then made a one-legged step-back from the left side for a swish.
Carlisle sensed the gaining momentum by Golden State and called another timeout, now up just 49-44 with 4:43 to play.
But Curry hit another trey and Klay made a dribble-drive, hesitated, then found the lane open for a dunk to make it 53-49, Mavericks, with just 3:02 left:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
It was punch/counter-punch from that point forward to halftime as Parsons took Barnes left-handed for a nifty layup, but Barnes raced down the court immediately after and Curry gave him a pass completion with a two-handed chest pass and Barnes got two free throws after getting fouled by Nowitzki at the rim.
Chandler pissed off Oracle after getting another alley-oop from Barea and staring at the crowd, but Thompson nailed his patented side-step three-pointer from the right side. Dirk answered that with his own trey after good ball movement at the top, assisted by Ellis, but Klay followed that up faking a shot and blowing by Monta from the left elbow, finding Bogut under the rim for the easy bucket.
Barnes got a defensive rebound on a missed runner by Ellis and, as Curry brought the ball up and Bogut cleared out to the right side, Carlisle and his assistants screamed for Chandler to remain on Curry’s side of the court, the left side, but it was too late. Steph delivered a finger roll into the cup with 12 seconds left:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Green D’ed up Monta for the last Mavs possession and forced a fade-away miss from the left elbow.
Dallas took a 62-58 lead into halftime. Curry led all scorers with 15 points on 6-for-11 field, 3-for-6 downtown, but just 2 assists. Thompson added 12 points on 5-for-9 field, 2-for-3 downtown, and Barbosa and Speights each chipped in 8 points apiece. The Warriors were a sub-par 14 assists on 22 made field goals and Dallas shot 25-for-47 for the half (53.2%).
The Mavs had three players in double-figures plus two more with 9 points apiece and Chandler led the way on the boards with 10, while Golden State was led by only 5 rebounds, by Green, although Green had played tremendous defense and was scoreless on the offensive end.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
