Mavericks blown out by Warriors, lose Rondo to injury
The Dallas Mavericks suffered a painful loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night — in more ways than one.
Already without small forward Chandler Parsons, who missed Saturday’s 123-110 loss with a swollen right knee, the Mavs lost point guard Rajon Rondo to a hyperextended right knee in the second half.
If that weren’t enough, a big uproar occurred with 1:28 remaining in the third quarter when Warriors guard Shaun Livingston came from behind, reached down and clobbered Dirk Nowitzki in the groin area.
When replays of the unfortunate incident were shown on the video board, the sellout crowd at American Airlines Center booed lustily then and each time Livingston touched the ball for the remainder of the game.
Owner Mark Cuban had a discussion after the game with Warriors coach Steve Kerr and assistant coach Alvin Gentry about the play, which drew a flagrant-1 foul.
“It’s Dirk, it’s a Hall of Fame player,” Cuban said. “You don’t treat somebody like that.
“Shaun said, ‘I’m not a dirty player; I’ve been in the league 11 years.’ I said, ‘Shaun, nobody plays post defense like that.’”
Livingston’s antics aside, the loss dropped the Mavs to 46-31 with five games to go. The Warriors (63-13), meanwhile, won for the 12th straight time and clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Warriors were so balanced Saturday night that Most Valuable Player candidate Stephen Curry was barely a factor with just 11 points. Klay Thompson led Golden State with 21 points and reserves Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights had 18 apiece.
Nowitzki led the lackluster Mavs with 18 points on just 3-of-5 shooting — he was 12 of 15 from the free throw line.
Monta Ellis and J.J. Barea added 14 points apiece for the Mavs, and Tyson Chandler and Amar’e Stoudemire each tallied 10.
The Mavs trailed 77-69 shortly after Livingston took liberties with Nowitzki. Iguodala then tallied seven of the ensuing 13 points for the Warriors to open up the floodgates.
Golden State stretched its lead to as many as 19 early in the fourth quarter before the benchwarmers came on and finished the game.
The Warriors swept the Mavs 4-0 this season. Before the game, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle talked about getting his team to play more efficient ball heading into the playoffs.
Carlisle also said — with five games left — there is no immediate plan to rest players down the stretch.
“We need to keep working on our game and playing well,” he said. “As far as rest, as it goes along, we’ll see what’s what — there’s no specific plan in place. The important thing is to get playing as well as we can play. It’s challenging with the schedule that we have.”
The Mavs trailed 26-24 after the first quarter and were preparing to head into the locker room in decent shape. Speights then drained a shot near half-court, and the Warriors toted a 59-48 lead into halftime.
But after the game and after the Mavs were bemoaning yet another loss, Cuban was upset at the theatrics showed by Livingston.
“If it was a normal course of the game, just a play that happened, that’s a part of the game, it happens,” Cuban said. “But no one plays post defense like that.
“I have respect for the Golden State organization. Steve said he didn’t see it. But if he didn’t see it, he didn’t see it.”
The Mavs shot 42.5 percent from the field, and converted just 3 of 16 shots from behind the 3-point line. The Warriors made 45.3 percent of their shots, and were 14 of 36 from downtown.
Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published April 4, 2015 at 11:35 PM with the headline "Mavericks blown out by Warriors, lose Rondo to injury."