The Dallas Mavericks made sure the Golden State Warriors kept their brooms in the closet, and only to be used perhaps
another day and against another franchise.
Shooting 50 percent from the field and making 20 of their 43 shots from three-point land, the Mavs defeated the Warriors, 119-109, Tuesday at American Airlines Center, thus avoiding a four-game sweep by the Warriors.
Golden State leads this best-of-seven Western Conference Finals series, 3-1, and Game 5 is Thursday at 8 p.m. in San Francisco. And now that the Mavs have finally won a game in this series, they truly believe they can win even more games in this series.
“Everybody in that locker room felt like we had more basketball to play,” forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. “We just wanted to get the win by any means necessary and I feel like we came out desperate in that first half.
“We just made shots and we also kept getting stops. So we got the chance to play a little faster and we got them open shots early in the shot clock and not like at the end of the shot clock and trying to shoot a bomb.”
Here are our five takeaways from the 10-point win over the Warriors.
BANGING THOSE BOARDS: The Mavs saw the ugly numbers showing how badly the Warriors beat them on the boards in the first three games of this series. And they knew if they had any chance of extending this series – and any hopes of winning this series – they had to go out and aggressively attack the boards. And that’s precisely what the Mavs did Tuesday as they finally won the rebounding battle, 44-42. That rebounding differential may not sound like much. But after the Warriors battered the Mavs on the boards in Game 1 (51-35), Game 2 (43-30) and Game 3 (47-33), giving the Warriors a taste of their own medicine and beating them on the boards was a cause of celebration. Tuesday 
was the Mavs’ highest rebounding game total of this series and the Warriors’ lowest rebounding game total of this series.
DONCIC WAS A SHINING LIGHT: Luka Doncic was a beacon of light – again – for the Mavs. Named earlier Tuesday as a member of the all-NBA first-team for the third time in his four-year career, Doncic finished Game 4 with 30 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. And on the defensive end of the floor, he collected two steals and two blocks. By the end of the third quarter when the Mavs built a 99-70 lead, Doncic already had 21 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Doncic has now scored 30 or more points in five consecutive elimination games to start a career. That’s the most by any player other than Elgin Baylor, who did it eight times. “I don’t think nothing differently,’ Doncic said. “I just want to win the game and that’s it.”
BULLOCK’S RETURN TO GLORY: Reggie Bullock knew what happened to him in Game 3 was nothing more than an aberration. In that game, Bullock missed all 10 of his field goal attempts, including all seven of his three-point attempts. It was the worst playoff game of Bullock’s career. But he more than made up for it Tuesday when he scored 18 points and was 6-of-10 from downtown. The 18 points are the third-highest point total for Bullock during this year’s postseason. He scored 21 points in Game 2 of this series against the Warriors, and he also poured in 19 points in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Phoenix Suns.
FINNEY-SMITH GETTING BUCKETS: Dorian Finney-Smith knew he had to do substantially more than he did in Game 3 when he
scored just nine points and grabbed four rebounds. So in Game 4, Finney-Smith was so productive that he finished with 23 points and six boards. The 23 points were one shy of his career playoff high of 24 points. The six-year veteran was 9-of-13 from the floor, including 4-of-7 from three-point range. In the first three games of this series, Finney-Smith was just 8-of-19 from the field. “I feel like we’ve been getting great looks,” Finney-Smith said. “We just got to keep shooting with confidence. We feel like we know when the shot is going to come. We just got to execute the game plan for 48 minutes.”
KLEBER WAS SPOT-ON: The Mavs, to the naked eye, are just a completely different team whenever Maxi Kleber is shooting the ball effectively. And on Tuesday, Kleber was shooting the ball effectively. After connecting on just 2-of-14 from the field and scoring only six points in the first three games of this series, Kleber was 5-of-6 from the floor and tallied 13 points Tuesday. He also collected a total of eight rebounds in the first three games of this series. That’s the same number of rebounds Kleber collected in Game 4. Not only that, Kleber was 3-of-3 from the field from two-point range Tuesday. Those were the only two-point shots he’s attempted in this entire series.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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