Warriors Rally for 2-0 Lead Against Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks led by as many as 19 points in the first half but lost 126-117 to the Golden State Warriors on May 20. After halftime, the Warriors outscored Dallas 68-45 to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals.

Dallas was coming off a 25-point loss in Game 1 on Wednesday and looked poised to continue their bounce-back streak. The Mavericks were 10-0 in games following losses of 20 or more points this season. 

Instead of pushing that streak to 11 straight wins, Dallas faces an 0-2 series deficit for the second consecutive series, but this time against the championship-tested Golden State Warriors. 

Luka Doncic reportedly began throwing up after the Game 1 loss, hardly sleeping Wednesday night. He still participated in a Thursday morning practice but had trouble sleeping that night.

However, Doncic was unaffected by the illness as he poured in 42 points and added eight assists and five rebounds. If Dallas held on for the win, Doncic’s performance while dealing with an illness might have gone down in NBA lore. Instead, fans will remember the game for Golden State’s second-half rally. 

Doncic had 18 points in the first quarter, two-shy of his total in Game 1. Jalen Brunson scored eight of the team’s first 14 points en route to 31 total. In the opening period, Dallas led by as many as 16 (26-10) before the Warriors embarked on a 13-0 run. Doncic helped ensure the run did not evaporate all of the Mavericks’ momentum, scoring six points in the final two minutes of the first for Dallas to lead 32-25.

Dallas continued its hot start in the second quarter extending its lead to as many as 19 points, with Doncic (24 points) and Brunson (20 points) leading the way in scoring at halftime. As a team, the Mavericks made 15-of-27 from three in the first half (54%) after making just 11-of-48 attempts (23%) in all of Game 1.

A three-pointer from Doncic with 13 seconds left in the half made the Dallas lead 72-58 at halftime. 

The collapse happened in the third quarter when the Mavericks suddenly lost their shooting touch. The Mavericks made just 2-of-13 three-point attempts in the quarter and scored only 13 points, their lowest scoring quarter during the postseason. Meanwhile, Golden State scored 25 points in the quarter to pull the score to 85-83, entering the fourth. 

“We know how good they are as a third-quarter team,” Dallas forward Reggie Bullock, who finished with 21 points on six made threes, said. “It’s just something that slipped away from us as the game continued to go on.”

On a team that features experienced All-Stars in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins, 26-year-old center Kevon Looney sparked the Warriors’ rally. 

Looney had 11 points in the third quarter alone, on 5-of-6 shooting, and finished with a career-high 21 points while picking up 12 rebounds. Looney was also instrumental on the defensive end. After Dallas made an effort to go after defensive matchups on Curry in the first half, they began switching to attack Looney. The move backfired as Looney held firm and forced Doncic and Brunson into several tough shots and misses. Doncic made just 2-of-5 shot attempts in the third quarter.  

“When they switch, the low man is early there,” Doncic said, “so when I attack the paint, usually there’s two [defenders] on me or three, so I’ve got to do a better job of kicking it out.”

Golden State took its first lead of the game (86-85) 18 seconds into the fourth quarter after a three-pointer from Otto Porter. The Warriors never gave up the lead from that point forward. 

Doncic excelled in the final period with a mix of layups and three-pointers to finish with 14 points in the fourth quarter. Overall, he made 12-of-23 shot attempts, including 5-of-10 from three-point range. 

However, the Mavericks could not get a stop on the defensive end as Golden State consistently drove into the lane for easy layups, and Dallas never got closer than six points (116-110) with 2:25 remaining. Stephen Curry finished with 32 points on 11-of-21 shooting, including 6-of-10 from three-point range. He hit a dagger three-pointer with just over a minute left to give Golden State a ten-point lead.

Jordan Poole added 23 points off the bench for the Warriors, while Wiggins had 16, and Klay Thompson added 15 points for a second straight game. Golden State scored 62 points in the paint. The Warriors made 46-of-82 (56.1%) shot attempts. 

“We play defense when we play offense,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said, “and we play no defense when we can’t score.”

The series moves to Dallas for Game 3 on Sunday. The Warriors are just two wins from a return to the NBA Finals for the first time since making five straight trips from 2015 to 19.

“It’s the Warriors. They have a great team. They’re a championship team. We’ve got to adjust our defense,” Doncic said.” We were up 19, so it’s a tough situation. But we can’t look back. What happened, happened. So we’ve got to move on.”

Golden State improved to 8-0 at home this postseason, and is 18-5 in Game 2’s dating to their 2015 title run.

“We’re on the road against one of the best teams in the league. It happens. They held serve,” Kidd said. “We’ve seen this in Phoenix, so now we have to go back and just focus on Game 3.”