| Advertisement |
DALLAS -- The last time Golden State visited Dallas, Stephen Curry was nursing a minor injury and didn't play. The game went down as one of the Warriors' six losses on the season. Oh, what a difference having the reigning MVP makes. Golden State shrugged off a sluggish start and pulled away late against a desperate Mavericks team 130-112 in front an early-arriving sellout crowd Friday night at American Airlines Center.
Advertisement
Curry finished with 31 points on 12-of-26 shooting after a cool second half, and he added 10 assists and nine rebounds in 34 minutes. The Warriors won their seventh consecutive game and improved to 62-6 as the San Antonio Spurs, who, like the Warriors, have yet to lose at home this season, await their arrival for a Saturday night showdown between the league's two best teams.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said center Andrew Bogut, who left in the first half with a left big toe injury and did not return, won't play at San Antonio, and added: "If I had any guts, I'd sit everybody."
Said Curry of making the quick recovery: "We'll be fine," he told ESPN after the game. "They're playing really well right now and we have an opportunity to go in, and it's going to be a tough test for us."
Curry and Splash Brothers partner Klay Thompson, who scored a game-high 39 points and made 10-of-15 3-pointers, were mostly out of sight, splashing 11-of-17 from 3-point range in the first half alone as Golden State took a 73-67 lead into the locker room. As a team, the Warriors were an eye-popping 15-of-22 from beyond the arc in the first half, and 22-of-38 for the game.
Remarkably, in the second half neither connected for a 3-pointer in a game that had grown tight until Thompson made two in a row, the first coming at the 7:07 mark of the fourth quarter. The second pushed Golden State to a 109-99 lead.
"It's a playoff team on the road," Curry told ESPN following the game of the Mavs' effort. "We ended up with a nice margin, but you never expect to come in and blow somebody out. They put up a fight."
Dallas, fighting for its playoff life, dropped below .500 at 34-35, and will now await word on forward Chandler Parsons, who left the game with a sore right hamstring. He had 14 points in 22 minutes before leaving the game.
"We don't think it's serious, but he was struggling to move a little bit," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "We didn't want to take a risk. He'll get treatment today and tomorrow, and we'll see where he is on Sunday."
The Mavs played about as well as they could in the first quarter, taking a 20-12 lead and scoring 36 points while shooting 56.0 percent. It didn't matter, because the Warriors scored 42 points on 61.5 percent shooting, including going 9-of-12 from 3-point range.
Curry had four of them on five attempts, including hitting another one of his patented long-distance 3s as the first-quarter buzzer sounded to give him 14 points in the opening 12 minutes.
Before Dallas could blink, it trailed 56-43 midway through the second quarter. However, the Mavs, behind strong first halves from former Warriors forward David Lee and Dirk Nowitzki, who had a team-high 24 points, managed to stay close despite Golden State's blazing shooting.
Dallas kept up the pressure in the third quarter and even took a brief lead, 83-81, taking advantage of free throws to cut into Golden State's advantage behind the arc. But the Warriors closed the quarter on a 13-2 run for a 94-85 lead.
"They're incredible," Nowitzki said. "Usually a team has one scorer or shooter like that. But they have two."
Again, the Mavs managed to cut into the lead and push the Warriors, who simply had too much firepower for Dallas, which also saw guard Wesley Matthews limp off midway through the fourth quarter after clutching his knee on the ground. He was able to return to the game.
Golden State's Harrison Barnes scored 20 points, Draymond Green had 15 points and eight assists and Marreese Speights added 13 points off the bench.
Dallas' J.J. Barea and Lee, who was 7-of-8 from the floor, each had 16 points and Deron Williams had 13.
NOTES: Mavericks F David Lee, who has averaged 11.5 points and 7.6 rebounds since joining Dallas at the end of February, was questionable after tweaking a groin during Wednesday's loss at Cleveland, but decided to play against Golden State, his former team. ... Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said of the Warriors, who entered Friday's game 61-6: "Right now, by NBA standards, this is bigger than the Rolling Stones on tour." Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played for the 72-win Chicago Bulls in 1995-96 responded: "I was on the Beatles in '96, so I guess it's fitting that I'm on the Stones now. Either way, I'm just a roadie." ... Dallas entered Friday's game on a four-game home losing streak, tied for the longest streak since the team moved into the American Airlines Center in the 2000-01 season. ... The Mavericks play a home-and-home series with Portland starting at home Sunday. ... Warriors SG Klay Thompson hit 10 3-pointers on Friday, giving him 1,008 for his career. He became the second-fastest active player to reach 1,000 3-pointers. The first was teammate Stephen Curry. ... The Warriors play at San Antonio on Saturday. The Spurs and Warriors are the only teams undefeated at home this season. The Spurs are 34-0 at AT&T Center. ... During warm-ups, PGA two-time major winner and Dallas native Jordan Spieth met with Curry.
