Warrios vs Dallas Go At It Again
Some familiar foes meet up again when the Golden State Warriors take a trip to the Lone Star State to meet the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night. These two squads Warriors vs Dallas just battled on Sunday, with Luka Doncic leading Dallas to a 107-101 win in the Bay as +3½ underdogs. Is it time for Steph Curry and company to return the favor in the Big D?
As expected, the last game between these two teams was low-scoring. The 107-101 Mavs win going ‘under’ the 218½ betting total. Golden State leads the NBA in defensive efficiency this season, and Dallas is 5th. The Mavericks held 5 of 7 opponents under 100 points at the start of February, and the ‘under’ has hit in 28 of Dallas’ last 41 games.
Golden State is in a bit of a rut, losing five of seven games prior to their Tuesday visit to Minnesota. This is game of Golden State vs Dallas two of a four-game road swing for the Warriors, who have fared pretty well away from home with a 17-11 away record. Dallas has gone 20-11 at home.
If the Warriors want to pull out their best Liam Neeson impression and get revenge for Sunday’s loss, they need to stop Doncic but…good luck. The Dallas star is throwing his hat back into MVP talks lately, not just with 34 points and 11 rebounds vs. the Warriors, but also with 45+ points in three of his last six.
While Doncic is a one-man wrecking crew, the real reason the Mavs were able to get a road win at Golden State on Sunday was that Spencer Dinwiddie had his best game in a Dallas uniform since coming over at the trade deadline. After Dinwiddie left Washington, D.C. in the Kristaps Porzingis trade, he found his groove in a red state, with 20+ points in back to back games for Dallas.
Obviously, Steph Curry can go blow-for-blow with Doncic, so the supporting cast will likely decide Thursday’s game. Dinwiddie is getting hot for Dallas, but Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins remain as sporadic as a roulette wheel, and that ball still isn’t landing on Green with Draymond out until the end of March with a calf injury. Thompson did not play in Sunday’s meeting with Dallas and missed the Warriors game with Minnesota on Tuesday night with an illness.
Curry had 27 on Sunday vs. the Mavs, and Wiggins chipped in a decent 18, but Gary Payton II was the only other player in double figures with 13 in that contest. R.J. Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith both had over a dozen for Dallas in the last meeting against the Warriors’ No. 3 scoring defense (103.6 ppg).
Dallas has now gone 2-1 vs. the Warriors on the season, winning 99-82 on January 5th but getting directions to where the woodshed is at in a 130-92 loss on January 25th. A Golden State win here would tie up the season series, but it just doesn’t look like that is going to happen on the road, possibly without Thompson, and against a scorching hot Doncic.
