The only disappointment during the Warriors-Mavericks clash on Saturday night was that there were no fans in the arena to see what should be one of the big duels in recent NBA history. Stephen Curry finished with 57 points, but that was not enough as Luka Doncic responded with a career high of 42 to lead the Mavericks to a 134-132 victory over the Warriors.
Yes, your quick math is correct.
Curry and Doncic were one point ashamed to combine for 100.
There will be a lot of looking at the defense in this game, but it was not as bad as a total of 266 points would indicate. The Mavericks’ greats weren’t consistently aggressive in pushing Curry off pick-and-roll, and the undersized Warriors were in a scramble mode all night, leaving Dallas too much open of basic ball movement.
In the end, it was just an electric display of shot put, especially from Curry, who finished 11 of 19 from deep in his 16th career game with at least ten three-pointers. No other player in history has played more than five such games, per ESPN Statistics and Information. This is also the sixth time Curry has scored at least 50 points with at least 10 3s made; no other player in history has more than two such games.
“Sublime,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said said of Curry’s actions. “It was ridiculous the shots he hit. The difficulty level, the ease with which he made it. He’s never played better. We’re talking about a double MVP. I’ve never seen him like that before. He was still. has always been an incredible shooter, of course, but he seems stronger to me, just reach out to people, fend them off on edge to edge and finish. And of course the shooting. It’s almost unfathomable what he’s doing out there. ‘
Think of the statement of Kerr, a man who watched from the sidelines as Curry won three championships and two MVPs, who saw in 2015-16 an NBA record of 402 three-pointers on a 45 percent cut, which barely a month ago saw Curry hanging 62 points on the Blazers. Kerr has seen Curry do things that will likely challenge human ability more times than he can probably count, and he says it’s the best he’s ever seen. This is an astonishing perspective.
And he can only be right. The shots that made Curry look routine – as he often knows – against Dallas were nuts. Just look at this nonsense:
What stands out most, apart from the actual shots, is the aggression with which Curry hunts them. He had been in the mode for a while now, unlike the early season when he tried to play things off relatively slowly so that the new Warriors could find their feet before hitting the turbo button.
Over his last ten games, Curry, who is 42.5 percent vs. three for the season, scores 50 percent of the tries (58 for 116). Over his last eight games, he passes with 52 percent (49 for 94). When you think of the way he is guarded, two and three bodies surrounding him at every turn, box-and-one, traps, the whole defense moves after each movement like a flower to the sun, with weak shooting teammates to suffocate his space and encourage even more desperate defense against Curry to think he’s still splashing at these rates, bordering on madness.
Look, I just need to get it off my chest. Five weeks ago I tweeted this:
I’m the dumbest man alive. I will not even try to explain where I came from when I brought that blasphemous garbage out into the world. Damian Lillard is a stone-cold superstar, but Steph Curry, still, at 32, is a bold mutant who has never been a citizen of this planet.
As for Doncic, who is just there with Lillard and James Harden in the battle for the non-Curry best point-wait-in-the-world throne, he needed it. The dirty secret that Doncic has never really been a good 3-point shooter is being shouted from the rooftops these days while hitting just 29 percent of his triplets when he walked 7 of 12 out of downtown on Saturday while 11 assistants and added seven. setbacks to go with his 42 points.
You can see in some of the tracks that Golden State Doncic gave just a touch of air space, and did not necessarily invite to shoot three-pointers, but certainly did not sell out to stop him. This is smart. Again, he was less than 30 percent of three who entered the game. Play the numbers.
But many of the steps and finishes in the track are well defended. Doncic is just as special, and when the Mavs start to get well, he’s a man who can lead them out of the valley in a matter of weeks. Saturday night was a great start. Doncic launched on point with the biggest shooter ever, scoring 11 points and four assists in the fourth quarter.
Doncic hit the breakaway three-pointer to give Dallas a seven-point lead with 43 seconds to play, but the stranger named Curry was not finished, finishing an old-fashioned three-pointer and splashing another rainbow step. . back 3 to draw the Warriors within one with 28 seconds to play – enough time to stop, call a time-out and take a chance on a match winner.
But Doncic does not let the Warriors get the stop, and commands a double team and quietly gives a pass in the corner, where Maxi Kleber hits the 3 that eventually seals it for Dallas. Footnote: I would be sad if I did not at least mention the conspicuously missed call with less than a minute to play that definitely played a role in the outcome.
Yes, that ball is off limits, outside Kristaps Porzingis, and no, the officials did not see it. The possession continued and a few seconds later Doncic hit the above 3-pointer to drop Dallas to seven. Clearly, a three-pointer that should never have been attempted is a big deal in a two-point game, but we are not going to spoil this epic duel by talking about a missed call. It was Luke’s night. It was Curry’s night. It was the night of the fans, and one can only imagine how bonkers they would go if they were in the building to watch it.