Steph Curry outscored Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson combined in Dallas’ latest lopsided loss.
The Dallas Mavericks (31-27) looked listless, and the Golden State Warriors (30-27) left them for dead on the side of the road on Sunday, 126-102, at the Chase Center. Things looked bad as the first quarter wore on, and they only got worse from there.
The Mavericks had trouble getting to the basket, earning just two free throws as a team in the first half. They got out-rebounded 58-47 in the loss and turned the ball over 18 times. Golden State scored 30 of their 126 points off those turnovers.
Steph Curry led all scorers with 30 points on 12-of-20 shooting to go along with seven assists. Kyrie Irving and PJ Washington scored 17 points apiece in the lethargic, lopsided loss.
Early futility
The Mavs actually got off to a fast start at Golden State on Sunday, though you wouldn’t know it to look at the box score. Dallas led 9-4 early on when Dante Exum found Kessler Edwards streaking to the hoop for a clean dunk when the game was just over two minutes old.
Then Dallas couldn’t find the broad side of a barn for their next 12 trips down the floor. The Warriors went on a 16-0 run that gobbled up most of the first quarter, and it was all fueled by — guess who — Curry. He filled up the stat sheet with 10 points, three boards and two assists in the opening frame. His 3-point play through the flailing defense of Spencer Dinwiddie with 4:56 left to play in the first gave the Warriors a 20-9 lead before Dallas finally woke up.
And through it all, even as Golden State built the lead up to 31-16 on Gui Santos’ drive through the toothless Dallas defense, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd kept his hands in his pockets. He showed zero desire to stop the bleeding with a timeout as his team turned the ball over six times in the quarter. The Warriors dominated the first quarter, 33-18.
Post-erized
Someone named Quinten Post scored five straight points on two trips down the floor for the Warriors, finally prompting Kidd to pull his hands out of his pockets to call a timeout with 8:58 left in the first half. Dallas was down 41-20 at that point, and the game was basically over.
Post dunked through the hapless effort of Edwards and Naji Marshall down low and started bloviating like he was someone you should have heard of in celebration. Truly embarrassing stuff from the five Mavericks on the floor and the bespectacled bum pacing the Dallas sideline. Exum fouled Post the next time down, and the Warrior big man went 2-for-2 from the free throw line to make it seven points in a row with 8:15 left in the second.
Captain Klay lost at sea
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
In his first two games back in his old stomping grounds, Klay Thompson was lights out, scoring 22 points on 6-of-12 3-point shooting in a loss on Nov. 12 and 29 points on 7-of-11 shooting from distance in a win on Dec. 15. In the first half on Sunday, however, he couldn’t toss it into the Bay.
Thompson turned the ball over three times and scored exactly zero points (0-of-4 field goals, 3-of-3 from 3-point range) in the first half. His fourth came in the second quarter when Jimmy Butler poked the ball out from his dribble from behind and Thompson juggled it out of bounds. Dallas trailed 61-44 at the half, as Curry and newcomer Jimmy Butler led all scorers with 14 points apiece.
That’s when both Thompson and Irving awoke from their on-court afternoon naps. Thompson nailed 3-of-4 from 3-point territory in the third quarter and Irving started scoring on aggressive drives to the basket after going just 2-of-10 for five points in the first half.
Thompson scored all 11 of his points in the third, and Irving added eight more in the frame.
Goodnight and Good Luck, Dallas
But even the uptick in production from two of the most important Mavericks didn’t matter in terms of the outcome. Dallas came into the third quarter down 17 points and went into the fourth down 25 points, all because none of the guards on the Mavericks’ all-guard roster could do anything to slow Curry down.
Curry scored eight points, including two of his three made 3-pointers, in a span of about a minute late in the third to extend the Warriors’ lead to 23, up 95-72 on a pull-up from mid-range with 2:18 left in the frame. He gave the Dallas bench the “nighty-night” gesture on his way back down on defense, with more than a full quarter still left to play. He exploded for 16 in the third after tallying 14 in the first half.
The fourth quarter was rendered meaningless, with the Warriors taking a 100-75 lead after three. PJ Washington was one of the lone bright spots for the Mavs in the loss, scoring a quiet 17 points on 3-of-4 shooting from long range.