ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Dallas Mavericks at the Golden State Warriors.
The Mavs took a 62-58 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Curry On Fire!
Threes by Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, plus a layup by Draymond Green assisted by Thompson quickly closed the gap to a tie ball-game, 68-68, with 9:42 as Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle called timeout.
The #Roaracle crowd lived up to its moniker at deafening levels after Harrison Barnes corralled a missed trey by Klay and found Curry wide open on the left elbow for a triple to give the Warriors a 76-70 lead with 8:21 to go in the third.
The cheers soon turned to boos, after Devin Harris and Chandler Parsons sandwiched another Curry three-pointer, as Andrew Bogut seemingly leveled Harris on the left baseline as yet another Curry launch from downtown splashed through the net. The jumbotron replay suggested a bit of flopping by Harris and Oracle was not happy.
The boos then became “Ref-You-Suck” chants on the other end as Marreese Speights attempted to take a charge, but was called for the block. Soon thereafter, Green fouled Dirk Nowitzki at near-halfcourt and the Warriors were already in the penalty with 6:26 to go in the quarter, up 81-78.
But the Mavericks couldn’t take advantage as Curry went off.
He got a trey to go from the left side as Chandler Parsons flew by and hit him late on the forearm.
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The ref didn’t call it, so Curry did the same to Devin Harris. The ref didn’t call that either, but Harris’ triple went through.
Speights got a fading jumper to fall, his second jumper in a row, and Carlisle called another timeout with 4:52 to go and the score 88-82, Warriors.
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Al-Farouq Aminu and Harris then teamed up for an and-one and a triple, respectively, and the Mavericks evened things up at 88-88, but Curry got another one from downtown to fall:
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Curry would go on to score 26 points in the quarter, finishing the third frame with 41 points on 14-for-22 from the field and 9-for-13 from beyond the arc.
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But perhaps his most impressive play was, with 27 seconds to go, taking JJ Barea with a hard left-handed dribble down the lane, stopping, letting Barea fly by on the hapless retreat, and calmly drilling the pull-up jumper to make it 101-95.
However, the Mavericks would cut the lead to 101-98 at the end of the period as Barea missed a three in front of hounding Curry defense. Aminu got the offensive rebound, however, and dished the ball out to Charlie Villanueva on the right elbow, who drilled his third triple on the night on six tries.
4TH QUARTER:
The bench unit of the Warriors rose up yet again at the beginning of the final frame, with Leandro Barbosa getting a layup followed by a three-pointer, then Barnes scoring at the rim on a cut assisted by Andre Iguodala. Carlisle had to use another timeout to stop the bleeding, and Golden State was up, 108-98, with 10:26 remaining in the game.
An Iguodala step-back swish from beyond the arc, with the shotclock winding down and few other options available with Bogut, Green, Barbosa, and Livingston on the floor, gave the Warriors a 111-101 lead with 8:00 to go.
But a Chandler dunk putback of a Parson miss that infuriated #Roaracle because Parsons had taken two long Euro-steps to get to the rim, plus an and-one by Parsons after cutting and receiving the ball under the hoop by Aminu, cut the Dubs’ lead to just 112-105 with 6:57 to play.
Kerr brought Curry and Thompson back at the ensuing timeout, but the starters closing the game out got to an auspicious start as Curry gave Speights an interior pass that he wasn’t expecting, bouncing off his chest.
But it was Iguodala to the rescue tonight as he stole a pass from Ellis trying to get the ball up top to Parsons, and Iguodala slammed home the runout to give Golden State a 114-107 lead with 4:53 remaining, and Carlisle called another timeout.
Iguodala kept the aggressive action going as he scissored down the left side of the paint after a pass from Curry and finished with a finger roll at the rim, but Dallas answered back as Parsons got a running left floater from the left baseline to drop. Curry came back by crossing Harris from the perimeter, then dropping a floater over Chandler, but Chandler counter-punched with an alley-oop slam fed by Harris.
Thompson followed that up with a missed three from the left side, but Bogut snuck by Chandler and got the tip-in to trickle in, giving the Warriors a 120-113 cushion heading into the final two minutes.
But Harris made a bad pass trying to get the ball back up to the top to Nowitzki and, as the ball scooted by the seven-footer, Curry raced upcourt, dashed around Dirk on a side he wasn’t expecting, stole the ball and got fouled on a reverse layup attempt.
As MVP chants filled the arena, Curry made both free throws, his 44th and 45th points, to give the Warriors an insurmountable 122-113 lead with just 1:35 to play.
Carlisle used another timeout and, out of the timeout, Harris missed a right corner three-pointer and the Mavs’ hopes were dashed. To add insult to injury, Curry splashed another three, his tenth of the night, from the deep left elbow, to throttle Dallas, 128-114, with just 53 ticks to go.
Curry ended the night with 51 points on 16-for-26 field, 10-for-16 downtown, 9-for-11 from the charity stripe, and 4 rebounds, 4 assists. Thompson added 18 points with 4 threes and Barbosa and Speights had 14 off the bench each. Iguodala had a balanced contribution with 7 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and Green added 10 rebounds, 6 assists.
Dallas was led by Parsons with 24 and Chandler with 21, while Nowitzki had just 15 points on 4-for-15, primarily guarded by Green, and Ellis also had just 14 points on 7-for-19. The Warriors managed to hold the Mavericks to just 41.8% shooting and 10-for-30 from downtown, while eclipsing 50% from not only the field but also beyond the arc, with Curry helping the Warriors end up 19-for-38 from long range.
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