On Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks honored its best player in franchise history, Dirk Nowitzki. The team also beat the NBA’s best team, the Golden State Warriors, 99-82, behind a solid defensive performance.
The win is the Mavericks’ fourth consecutive, their longest winning streak this season.
Luka Doncic had an excellent game with 26 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists. Doncic warmed up for the game in a Nowitzki T-shirt jersey and played with “#41 forever” written on the soles of his shoes.
Despite being the obvious focal point of Golden State’s defense, Doncic produced an excellent performance. He regularly faced double-teams and trap defenses throughout the game.
The Warriors’ 82 points are the fewest they have scored in a game all season. That marks five straight games now that the Mavericks have held their opponent to less than 97 points. Entering the game, Golden State had the NBA’s best record at 29-7 with the league’s best defensive rating.
Dorian Finney-Smith was a pivotal contributor to the Dallas win, adding 17 points and nine rebounds while making 4-of-7 three-point attempts.
Finney-Smith made one less three-pointer than the entire Warriors team did all night (5-of-28). Warriors superstar Stephen Curry was held to 14 points, making only 1-of-9 three-point attempts.
After the first half, Curry had just five points after making only 1-of-10 shot attempts, while the Warriors had made only 1-of-15 three-point attempts. Dallas held a 50-39 halftime lead.
However, the offensive juggernaut that is Golden State could not be entirely contained. The Warriors opened the third quarter on a 24-6 run, with Doncic scoring all six of the Mavericks’ points. Just like that, Golden State took a 63-56 lead.
Dallas responded by scoring 14 of the third quarter’s last 18 points to take a 70-67 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Mavericks secured the victory with a 23-7 run to end the game, punctuated by a Marquese Chriss three-pointer.
The only negative all night for the Mavericks was Doncic leaving the court with 1:33 left in the game after appearing to twist his right ankle. Luckily, it was not the left one that he injured earlier this season, and Doncic did not seem too worried.
“It’s not the bad one,” he said postgame, “so I guess we’ll be OK. It just hurt a little bit, so I’ll be fine.”