The Golden State Warriors kept the Dallas Mavericks in check during a 112-87 victory on Wednesday night for a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Finals.
Dallas lost control of the game early, falling by 12 points 15 minutes into the game, and did not recover.
The Mavericks cut their deficit to three points (38-35) with 4:25 remaining before halftime, but the Warriors quickly responded with an 11-2 run to re-establish a double-digit lead. Luka Doncic hit back-to-back threes in the final two minutes of the half to help bring Dallas within nine (54-45) at the break. The Mavericks made just 7-of-29 from three in the first half.
In the first half, Golden State’s All-Star duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson struggled, but it did not prevent the team from holding the lead.
Curry missed his first five three-point attempts before finally making one with less than a minute to go before halftime. However, he contributed in other ways, with four assists and leading all players with seven rebounds in the first half. Thompson failed to score in the first half, scoring all of his 15 points after halftime.
Curry found his range in the third quarter, hitting two quick three-pointers to spark a Warriors 10-2 run to start the second half. Golden State extended its lead to 17 points with 2:30 left in the third. Curry would finish with 21 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
In the fourth, the Warriors extended their lead to as many as 30 points. Both teams subbed in their reserve units with about five minutes remaining.
Seven Golden State players scored double-digits, including all five starters. Andrew Wiggins scored 19 points, while Jordan Poole added 19 off the bench.
Kevon Looney had 10 points, five rebounds, and four assists, and Otto Porter added 10 points and six rebounds.
Doncic led all scorers with 18 points at halftime but scored just two points in the second half to finish with 20. He made just 6-of-18 shot attempts, including 3-of-10 from three, for his most inefficient performance of the playoffs so far. He added seven rebounds, four assists, and seven turnovers.
“I gotta be better,” Doncic said. “That’s not me. I gotta be better for the whole group.”
Doncic had averaged more than 30 points in four games against the Warriors during the regular season. Wiggins served as his primary defender, and Golden State showed multiple defensive looks to slow him.
“They did a really good job,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said. “Wiggins picking [Doncic] up full court; they went box-and-one, they went zone. We understood coming into the series that we were going to see that. We’ll go back and look at the video and see what we can do better.”
Doncic received a scratch across his face from Wiggins early in the first quarter from the bridge of his nose to his right cheek.
“Makes me look tough,” Doncic remarked after the game.
The Warriors have already shown they can slow down MVP-caliber players during this postseason. They handled two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets in round one, then dealt with Memphis’ Ja Morant in round two before he missed the final two games of the series with an injury.
“Just make him work, that was the main thing,” Wiggins said of Golden States’ defensive strategy on Doncic.
The Warriors improved to 7-0 at home these playoffs and won their 13th consecutive home Game 1 since 2016. Dating back to 2015, Golden State is 21-2 in Game 1s.
Dallas struggled to find their shooting range as a team, making 31-of-86 shot attempts (36%), including 11-of-48 from three (22.9%). In contrast, the Warriors made 46-of-82 (56.1%) shot attempts, including 10-of-29 (34.5%) from three.
Jalen Brunson finished with 14 points but missed all five of his three-point attempts. Reggie Bullock shot just 4-of-12, including 3-of-10 from three for 12 points. Spencer Dinwiddie was the only Maverick who took more than two shots and made more than 37.5% of them, pouring in 17 on 5-of-11 shooting.
Kidd acknowledged his Mavericks could not keep up in the Game 1; the battle of teams saw drastically contrasting styles, pitting the slow-paced Dallas attack against the up-tempo Warriors.
“We would like to play our pace, but the Warriors have a unique pace. They’re going to get out and put a lot of pressure on your defense in transition,” Kidd said. “We have to be cautious of that. We don’t want a track meet.”
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Friday night in San Francisco.
