Luka Doncic has a 41-point triple-double and the Warriors lose 113-116 to the Dallas Mavericks on the road.
The Warriors nearly get the win despite 18 turnovers and poor shooting from their supporting cast because... the second unit kicked ass while the starters struggled???
With a better first quarter from the Warriors’ starters, the Warriors might have come out of Dallas with a 12-10 record. But in a big plot twist, the Warriors’ starters were bad during their first and third-quarter stints and dug holes that the Warriors’ bench (!) got them out of. The Warriors shot 2/12 on jumpers in the first quarter and it was only at the 2:45 mark that Steph Curry had his first points of the night. By the end of the game, Curry tallied 32 points on 11/24 shooting, but he shot just 5/14 from deep, and with a chance to give the Warriors the lead with 10 seconds left, he air-balled a shot that was called off because of a correctly called traveling violation.
The Warriors’ starters have been excellent all season. Given their track history, they are allowed a few off nights. But frankly, it’s a miracle that the Warriors even managed to get the game close enough to have a chance to win — Luka Doncic had a 41-point triple-double on just 27 shots and looked utterly unphased by the presence of Andrew Wiggins and pretty much every Warriors’ defender not named Jonathan Kuminga. Doncic should be the headliner in most of tonight’s stories about the game, but Mavericks’ wings Tim Hardaway Jr. and Josh Green deserve some credit too. THJ scored 22 points on 5/11 shooting for three after coming into tonight shooting below 30% from deep while Green made big shots all night and frustrated Jordan Poole with his physicality during the fourth quarter.
In spite of Luka’s big night and a 12-point deficit at the end of the first quarter, the Warriors had a chance to win the game because of the play of their second unit. Anthony Lamb had 11 points, 5 rebounds, two made threes, and a handful of hustle plays during his 16 minutes while Jonathan Kuminga and Donte DiVincenzo combined for 17 rebounds off of the bench. Kuminga’s game was probably the most important big-picture development. In 25 minutes, including 16 straight from the end of the first quarter until halftime, Kuminga played with force, used his physicality to corral contested rebounds, and made timely cuts to the hoop. Kuminga’s defense against Luka Doncic was particularly impressive.
Kuminga took (and made!) just one three all night and it came in crunch time with 2:52 left in the game and the Warriors down by four points. That Kuminga was even on the court during crunch time was a credit to his focused and impactful play on the defensive end and on the glass. More minutes should follow for Kuminga and with good reason.
Kuminga’s insertion into the second unit marked a change for Steve Kerr, who has been using Andrew Wiggins in the Jordan Poole/Draymond Green-centric second unit that starts the second and fourth quarters. That shift was likely made to line up Wiggins’ minutes with Doncic’s and while I worried about the floor-spacing ability of this second unit, Draymond Green stepped up in a big way in the non-Steph Curry minutes and scored 6 of his 12 points on the night in the minutes without the Warriors’ gravitational star.
The rest of the Warriors’ supporting cast was less encouraging. Klay Thompson scored only 5 points in 31 minutes and took just 9 shots all game, 6 of which came from three; Andrew Wiggins was mostly invisible against Luka Doncic and made just one of his 6 attempts from deep and only grabbed one rebound; JaMychal Green missed a three, was called for a travel on what should have been an easy interior dunk, and made a very dumb foul of Luka Doncic during important third-quarter minutes; and Jordan Poole shot just 1/6 from three and picked up five turnovers, which offset his 9 assists on the night.
Speaking of turnovers — the Warriors had 18 of them tonight and a whopping 7 of them came on traveling violations, which led to a grand total of 10 traveling violations called between both teams. Poole was called for traveling violations twice and Steph Curry picked up four of them. The emphasis on travels felt a little bizarre and while TNT’s announcers did note that the calls were legally sound, they begged the question — why care about this now?
Between the turnovers, Luka Doncic’s huge night, and the combined 24 points between Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, and Klay Thompson, it’s something of a miracle this game was close. If there’s any consolation to be had in this game, it is that Jonathan Kuminga has hopefully realized how many minutes he can play when he decides to work hard on the defensive end and on the glass.
Rotation watch:
1st Q:
12:00 — Curry/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
5:54 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/Looney: 4-15, Mavericks lead.
4:36 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/J. Green: 6-18, Mavericks lead.
4:06 — Curry/Poole/DiVincenzo/Kuminga/J. Green: 6-23, Mavericks lead.
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