Slow start dooms Mavericks against red-hot Warriors
Somebody must have forgotten to give the Dallas Mavericks a wake-up call.
What other explanation is there for Saturday’s poor start at American Airlines Center that was the table-setter for a 105-98 loss to the red-hot Golden State Warriors?
Now the proud owners of a 15-game winning streak and a 20-2 record, the Warriors outscored the Mavericks 39-18 in the first quarter and basically coasted the rest of the way. The first quarter was so one-sided that the Mavericks could never get back in the game that started at 1 p.m.
“I’m not going to blame it on the early game or anything like that,” said Tyson Chandler, who registered his 12th double-double of the season with 11 points and 12 rebounds. “They showed up early, too, and they jumped out on us.
“We’ve allowed this to happen a couple of times where the first quarters have beat us, and we’ve come on to kind of either compete or win the other quarters, and it was no different tonight. We’ve got to do a better job of setting the tempo.”
The Mavericks, who played without the injured Chandler Parsons (sore lower back), were held under 100 points for only the fourth time this season. And their overall record, which dropped to 17-8, is a not-so-wholesome 0-6 against teams that would be in the Western Conference playoffs if the postseason started today.
“Well, we’re right there, but we haven’t beaten the good teams,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who had 23 points and eight boards. “So we’ve got to turn that around pretty quick. Right there is just not good enough.”
Stephen Curry (29 points, eight assists), Klay Thompson (25 points) and Draymond Green (20 points, eight rebounds) combined to stifle the Mavericks from the start. With 13 points from Curry and 10 from Thompson, that dynamic duo combined to personally outscore the Mavericks 23-18 over the first 12 minutes.
“They hit us with a lot of shot-making and a lot of good defense,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We just didn’t play well, and once we got hit back on our heels we picked it up.
“You dig out of a 21-point hole in the first 12 minutes, it’s just hard to do against a team that good.”
The Mavericks managed to claw within 102-95, but Monta Ellis (24 points, 8-of-22 shooting) missed a 3-pointer with 44.9 seconds left.
Curry sealed it a short time later with a pair of free throws.
The Warriors were so effective that the Mavericks couldn’t get a leg up when Golden State center Marreese Speights lost a shoe late in the third quarter. While play continued and the two teams went up and down the floor, Curry finally picked the shoe up and tossed it to Speights.
But Chandler swatted it away, much to the delight of the sellout crowd of 20,317.
On a day when the Mavericks saw how the NBA’s best team lives, they trailed 66-44 at halftime.
“You can’t give up 39, 40 points in the first quarter,” Ellis said. “That’s what really killed us.
“They’re a great team, they’ve been playing awesome the whole season. So that was the game — the first quarter — and we’ve got to do better than that.”
Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published December 13, 2014 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Slow start dooms Mavericks against red-hot Warriors."