SAN FRANCISCO – With bodies feeling the effects of the last day of a five-games-in-10-days road trip, the Dallas Mavericks
came out on the short end of a 104-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night at the Chase Center.
“I mean, I’m human just like the rest of my teammates,” guard Kyrie Irving said. “So, 10 days on the road. . .definitely feeling it this last game.
“We wanted to get this one really bad, but we just didn’t do enough on the offensive end and defensive end and it showed tonight.”
The loss snapped the Mavs’ season-high tying seven-game winning streak and left them with a 45-30 record going into Thursday’s home game against the Atlanta Hawks. With the loss, the Mavs – who remain in fifth place in the Western Conference standings — now have the same record as the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Mavs also are just one game ahead of the seventh-place Sacramento Kings (44-31) and eighth-place Phoenix Suns (44-31) as all four of those teams are in a tight race trying to avoid the dreaded play-in tournament.
Criss-crossing from Utah to California to Texas and back to California was not good for the Mavs’ legs, and it showed. The Warriors’ bench outscored the Mavs’ reserves, 39-13, and outrebounded them, 22-13.
And with the Mavs playing without center Dereck Lively II (sprained right knee) and guard Josh Green (right ankle sprain), their absence was definitely felt.
Following a basket by Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors had a 102-95 lead with just 32.2 seconds left, but the Mavs didn’t go quietly into the night. P.J. Washington fired in a three-pointer and Irving followed with two free throws, and suddenly the Mavs were within 102-100.
However, Klay Thompson nailed two free throws to pad Golden State’s lead to 104-100 with 10.3 seconds to go, as the Mavs finished this road trip with a still-gaudy 4-1 record.
“We never give up,” guard Luka Dončić said. “I think we had three great looks (down the stretch). P.J. had a catch-and-shoot, Kai had a catch-and-shoot, I had a catch-and-shoot, open catch-and-shoot three times.”
The Warriors outrebounded the Mavs, 52-42. It also was a game that saw the Mavs go on a 21-2 run spanning the second and third quarters to take a 55-49 lead following a three-pointer by Dončić.
“We had some great looks on the offensive end, but I think it’s just the character of the group,” coach Jason Kidd said. “When you look at this road trip, we’ve been down, we haven’t played well.
“We’ve stayed together and we understand that there’s two halves to the game. We got off to a good start in the third, they make a run, but again that
fourth quarter, our defense kept us in the game.”
Dončić registered his 20th triple-double of the season as he finished with 30 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Irving popped in 27 points and collected three steals, Washington scored 20 points, and Daniel Gafford added 10 points and eight boards.
But the Mavs couldn’t overcome the balanced scoring of the Warriors, who got 23 points from Wiggins, and 14 apiece from Chris Paul and Thompson. Also for Golden State, Stephen Curry tallied 13 points, Moses Moody scored 12, and Draymond Green added 11 points, eight boards, six assists and four steals.
In winning for the fifth straight game, Golden State (41-34) climbed ahead, 90-79, with 7:27 remaining after Wiggins converted a short jumper from the right baseline. But the Mavs remained resilient and immediately went on a 13-2 run to knot the game at 92 after Irving scored five points and Tim Hardaway Jr. collected the game-tying basket on a shot inside the paint.
Buoyed by Green’s three scores, the Warriors’ lead grew to 100-92 with 1:06 left.
“They’ve been playing great ball and that comes with Draymond Green being out there on the floor with Steph and Klay and having that core unit out there,” Hardaway Jr. said. “Everybody gets on him about certain things, but he is a huge part of their success.
“With him on the floor he disrupts a lot of things when they’re on the defensive end, and he makes the right plays offensively for those guys to get those guys open. You can call it how you want to, but at the end of the day he does a lot of good things for them.”
Despite 12 points from Dončić, the Warriors were able to hold a slim 28-27 lead after the first quarter and the game remained tight most of the way. It was knotted at 49 at halftime.
“I think the team is performing well and responding to the situation that we’re in,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Looking at the play-in and trying to not only make the play-in, but improve our seeding as best we can.
“You never know – (we) could even go higher than that. But every game’s important and we’re playing with a sense of urgency, which we need to.”
The Mavs shot 43.8 percent from the field and converted 15-of-40 three-pointers for 37.5 percent. But the Warriors made 45.6 percent of their shots and 46.9 percent of their three-pointers (15-of-32).
“I thought we fought hard,” Washington said. “Holding a team like that to 104 in their building is very good. Obviously, there’s some things we can work on and learn from in this game.
“I’m happy with the way we came out and fought for the whole game. I’m not disappointed or I don’t feel like we ran out of gas this game. I just feel like there’s some things we could have cleaned up and we could have definitely won this game.”
X: @DwainPrice
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