With a chance to clinch homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, the Golden State Warriors (62-13) were at the American Airlines Center tonight to face the Dallas Mavericks (46-30).
Tonight also marked the return of Draymond Green, who sat out the last three games with inflamed shins. The Mavericks were without Chandler Parsons due to swelling in his right knee.
1ST QUARTER: Unforced Errors Mess Up Sharp Start
Golden State got out to a sizzling start, but aided by a couple of unforced Dallas turnovers. Rajon Rondo and Richard Jefferson, who started in place of Parsons, made consecutive bad passes that both practically landed in Klay Thompson‘s lap.
The first turnover led to a righty banker layup and-one by Stephen Curry as he drew hard contact from Dirk Nowitzki on the run-out.
The second turnover was a pass from Jefferson back into Klay’s hands, intended for Rondo up top, and Thompson drove the length of the court with only Monta Ellis in his way, and easily swooped a finger roll as Ellis chose not to give much resistance running back.
After Klay hit a left corner trey quickly following a made layup by Rondo, Ellis missed a runner off the back rim and, on the ensuing sequence, Andrew Bogut got the ball up top, pointed for Curry to go from the left block to the left wing, but Steph left his man in the dust as he went backdoor instead and Bogut fed him easily for a nice lefty banker bucket.
The Warriors had an early lead at 10-3 with 9:44 to play and Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle called timeout.
Dallas got back on track as Jefferson got a trey, Tyson Chandler front-rimmed a jumper at the free-throw line that still dropped in, and Jefferson aggressively and successfully attacked Bogut on early offense after Harrison Barnes missed a layup.
But a Curry trey from the right elbow kept the Mavericks at bay and the Warriors were still up, 15-12, with 7:29 to go.
Thompson exited shortly thereafter when he got too much contact on an Ellis right-to-left crossover from the right wing into the paint. Justin Holiday subbed in for Klay.
The Mavericks then overcame a Bogut lefty putback dunk on a missed Curry pull-up three coming off a pick-and-roll with Green, as well as a nice Barnes right-to-left dribble pull up at the free throw line and an Andrer Iguodala trey from the right elbow, as Rondo used Chandler for a screen on Steph and got an and-one side-stepping past Bogut at the rim.
Then Curry got an offensive rebound of a missed Holiday three-pointer, but his lefty-behind-the-back pass in traffic to a cutting Iguodala got intercepted, and Ellis made the ensuing early-offense right baseline jumper. After that, Amar’e Stoudemire made a couple free throws and Al-Farouq Aminu made a run-out dunk as Shaun Livingston‘s bad pass to Iguodala got stolen.
All of a sudden it was just 22-21, Warriors, and head coach Steve Kerr called timeout. There was 3:09 left in the first frame and he had a few words of adjustment with Curry.
Festus Ezeli came in and immediately paid dividends, receiving a nice entry pass from Iguodala on a flash, with the help of slow reaction from Stoudemire.
Livingston made another bad pass and, as Jefferson stole it and raced down the court, the former Warrior small forward got tripped up by Holiday, ruled a clear-path foul. Jefferson only made one of the two free throws and Dallas tied the game, 24-24, with 1:57 to go.
But the Warriors bench ended the quarter on an upbeat note with great defense. After Livingston made a dribble-bump-and-fade jumper from the left baseline, JJ Barea couldn’t convert in the paint against Ezeli, then got swatted by Holiday, which was followed up by an Ezeli blocked shot of a Devon Harris layup.
Golden State held an early 26-24 lead at the end of one period of play. Curry led all scorers with 8, Jefferson had 6, and Bogut had 5 rebounds. Chandler had 4 rebounds.
2ND QUARTER: Ezeli And Speights Fill In Nicely
Marreese Speights didn’t skip a beat, as he immediately hit a couple of jumpers after starting the second quarter.
Speights then passed up an open jumper from the right elbow to find Green open on the left side of the hoop and the Warriors found a little bit of separation, going up 37-32.
But the Mavericks evened the score again as Thompson got a pass deflected and on the ensuing possession by Dallas, Harris airballed a trey, but Charlie Villanueva was there with a reverse putback layup. Then Klay back-rimmed a jumper and Bogut was called for holding Chandler on the next sequence.
It was Bogut’s third personal foul, sending him back to the bench for Ezeli again. One out of two free throws by Chandler tied the game at 37-37 with 7:01 to go in the half.
But Leandro Barbosa hit a right corner trey after Ezeli batted down an Iguodala miss, with the ball bouncing to Iguodala for an offensive rebound, then Klay got a defensive rebound of a Villaneuva missed trey, led the break, and found Green trailing for a triple from up top, and the Warriors found their separation again, taking a 5-point lead at 43-38 with 5:50 to go as Carlisle called another timeout.
Golden State’s offense started to hit turbo drive as Barnes got a two-handed dunk off of a baseline inbound play from Curry, leaving Jefferson in the dust, and after Jefferson later short-rimmed a three-pointer from the top, Steph led the break and made a beautiful lefty banker layup as he rose into Jefferson’s chest while he was retreating.
Iguodala then played pick-and-roll with Ezeli and Festus got the roll to fall, giving him 6 points and 6 rebounds in limited action during Bogut’s foul trouble, and helping the Warriors to a 51-42 lead with 2:19 left.
Even as Ezeli accumulated a couple of fouls, finishing the half with 3 personals as well, he stopped rim attacks such as a dunk attempt by Jefferson from the left baseline and another drive by Ellis as Monta got past Iguodala after he had deflected a cross-court pass.
But the Warriors had the marquee plays as, after getting doubled on the left baseline, Curry dished a behind-the-back pass to an awaiting Barnes on the deep left elbow. Harrison missed the trey, but Steph was right there to corral the offensive rebound on the right side in the paint. Curry jumped, changed his mind on his pass target, and tossed the ball to Thompson up top, who drilled the triple.
After Monta lost the next possession to Barnes, Harrison ran the break and fed Iguodala on the left wing for a dunk. Just like that, the Warriors were up 56-44 with 1:29 remaining.
But the Warriors weren’t done with their theatrics.
Even as Ellis kept Dallas from getting blown out with drives into the lane, including an and-one on Speights after Thompson missed his next trey attempt from up top, Iguodala couldn’t find Steph or Klay open on the inbound on the made free throw.
Curry wheeled around one more time and was open, but Iguodala opted for Speights at half court, who dribbled a couple times and launched from about 35 feet from the right side. Swish!
That gave the Warriors a 59-48 lead heading into halftime.
Steph led all scorers with 10 points. Speights had 9 and Iguodala 8 off the bench. Klay also had 8. Ezeli and Bogut had 6 rebounds apiece.
Golden State held Dallas to just 37.2% shooting. The Warriors assisted on 17 of their 23 field goals made. By contrast, the Mavericks only assisted on 7 of their 16 shots made, with Rondo accounting for 4 of those.
Chandler led the Mavs with 8 points, 8 assists. Ellis and Jefferson also chipped in 8 each, while Nowitzki, amazingly, was just 1-for-1 from the field.
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