DALLAS – Stephen Curry put on one of those games for the ages Sunday night at American Airlines Center. Unfortunately for the Dallas Mavericks, it was at their expense.
Curry poured in a season-high 48 points, and Golden State’s defense stepped up in the clutch as the Warriors emerged with a hard-fought 119-114 victory over the Mavs.
With the score deadlocked at 114, Curry came down the floor and drained a long, pull-up 3-pointer with 42.7 seconds remaining to put the Warriors ahead for good. The Mavs (20-23) had a chance to tie, but Harrison Barnes accidently dribbled the ball off his foot with 5.8 seconds left.
Curry then sealed everything with a pair of free throws. That capped a night which saw Curry convert 17-of-32 shots, including an amazing 11-of-19 baskets from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We just couldn’t keep Curry under control,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was brilliant. When a guy is at 27 feet and steps back with his quickness, he’s going to get some shots off.
“It’s not like he hasn’t been making these in his career, but look, we needed to play better, obviously. I’m not making excuses. I’m just saying he’s a great player, he got going and we needed to do a better job on him.”
Luka Doncic led the Mavs with 26 points, six rebounds and five assists. But he missed all five of his field goal attempts in the fourth quarter as he tried to maneuver by the Warriors’ stingy defense.
“He’s trying to break the defense down and have a chance to score and get teammates involved, and some days you don’t make every shot,” Carlisle said. “That’s one of the things about the NBA.
“But he’s going to learn a lot from tonight’s game. He still generates a lot of things out there.”
The Mavericks led 113-108 with 3:51 remaining in the game after Barnes made three free throws following a flagrant penalty-1 foul accessed to Draymond Green. But from the there the Mavs turned the ball over twice and also missed their final eight shots – four of them from 3-point land – as their offense total disappeared.
“I thought we did some good things,” Carlisle said. “I thought our effort was very good.
“You work hard to get that (113-108) lead late in the game, and finding a way to finish is what it’s all about. And these guys are the toughest to finish against because they can pop threes in.”
This was the Mavs’ first game since guard J. J. Barea tore his right Achilles tendon during Friday’s contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Barea will undergo season-ending surgery Monday, and his departure is a huge blow to the Mavs.
Rookie Jalen Brunson (13 points) and veteran Devin Harris (nine points) acquitted themselves well while running the Mavericks’ second unit in Barea’s absence on Sunday. Harris scored on a fast break layup and a follow-up 3-pointer that put the Mavs up, 108-103, with 5:05 left in the game.
“I thought Harris gave us a great lift in the fourth (quarter) with his flurry of scoring, the drives, the three, a couple of loose ball plays, so he’s going to be ready and he’s going to be there for us,” Carlisle said. “Brunson is going to have an opportunity here to play more minutes — that’s obvious.
“He did a lot of good things. He’s getting some crunch-time experience in the NBA, so he’ll learn a lot in a short period of time.”
Still, with Kevin Durant firing in 28 points and Klay Thompson adding another 16 points, the Mavs just didn’t have enough to pull this one out in the end.
“We had a couple of possessions where we were unable to score,” Carlisle said, “and they came down and hit a couple of threes.”
In addition to Doncic and Brunson, Barnes tallied 22 points for the Mavs, and DeAndre Jordan contributed 13 points and 14 rebounds. But the Mavs, who trailed 62-54 at intermission, couldn’t find the rim down the stretch and it cost them dearly.
“We kept coming, even though they made some runs here and there,” forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “We were still up a couple of points with a couple of minutes left, and we’ll take that all day.”
What the Mavs could ill-afford to take was the sizzling shot-making by Curry. That’s what ultimately did them in on Sunday.