The Dallas Mavericks haven’t returned home yet. Faced with a home defeat in Game 4, they responded to defeat the Golden State Warriors 119-109 on Tuesday night to win their first victory in the Western Conference final. The series, which is now 3-1 in favor of the Warriors, will return to the Bay Area for Game 5 on Thursday night.
After the fierce first quarter, the Mavericks opened a double-digit lead in the second quarter and headed for a break at 15. So Play was canceled due to a leak in the roof of the American Airlines Center.. When play finally resumed, the Mavericks resumed from where they left off, building a 29-point lead with an incredible 3-point shot. The Warriors’ reserves brought a healthy comeback, temporarily reducing the deficit to a single digit in the second half of the fourth quarter, but the game was by no means suspicious.
Luka Doncic was his least efficient, but led with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists. The Mavericks main story, however, was their three-point shooting. They went from downtown to 20 out of 43 and improved to 7-3 when they exceeded 15 3 in the playoffs. Reggie Bullock hit six of them on his way to 18 points.
With the Warriors surge in the fourth quarter, some of the overall stats seem fine, but this wasn’t Warriors’ excellent performance. Stephen Curry scored the team’s highest 20 points, but he shot 7 out of 16 from the field. Jonathan Kuminga was a brilliant spot for defeat with 17 points and 8 rebounds.
Here are some key points when Dallas avoids a sweep:
Mavericks spend an incredible night out of 3 points of land
The Mavericks attacks are built around three-point shots and can often live and die, depending on whether or not those shots are included. Not in this series, except in the first half of Game 2. Why the Mavericks faced a defeat after falling 3-0.
In Game 4, they found a stroke and led 20 of 43 to a series save victory from downtown. They doubled the Warriors from the outside and earned 30 points from 3 points of land. This could not be compensated for because the margin was too large. The Mavericks will be 7-3 in the playoffs if they create at least 15 3 pointers, and 2-4 if they don’t reach that mark.
Reggie Bullock scored 0 out of 10 points from the field and didn’t score 1 point in the defeat of Game 3, but made the team’s best 6 3 pointers and led in Game 4. The rest of the team joined in as well, with eight different Mavericks hitting at least one triple.
Creating 20 3-pointers in the game is obviously easier than it sounds, but the Mavericks will need more performance like this to continue expanding the series.
Doncic continues to excel in elimination games
The status of Luka Doncic as one of the best players in the league was reconfirmed before the game when he was nominated. To the All-NBA First Team For 3 consecutive years. Milwaukee Bucks star Janis Adetokumpo is the only other player to appear on the first team for three consecutive years.
If for some reason you’re still not sure how great Doncic is, Doncic provided more evidence when the game started. He wasn’t the most efficient, but he was doing everything for the Mavericks and finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Few players could control a game like Doncic, and I didn’t mean to lose to the Mavericks. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising given his advantage in the face of exclusion. Doncic and Mavericks went 3-0 in this postseason winning game. In his career, Doncic has averaged 36.6 points in elimination games. This is the average highest score in this situation in league history.
Strange night of basketball
Overall, this was one of the weirdest nights of basketball I’ve seen during the playoffs. Most notably, there was a delay in the rain and the half time was extended to nearly 30 minutes. A leak occurred on the roof of the American Airlines Center, causing water to fall on the court just next to the Warriors bench. Workers in the arena had to climb a catwalk near the roof and install a tarpaulin system to draw water.
That alone made this a strange night, but the strange things didn’t stop there. In the middle of the third quarter, Draymond Green went to the free-throw line and his first attempt bounced back before a complete stop behind the rim. Everyone was laughing. At that moment, Green shared a smile with Doncic.
Finally, in terms of pure skill (luck), Doncic had one of the most impressive make-ups throughout the postseason, but it wasn’t counted. After play stopped, he fired the ball about 20 feet into the air, bouncing once the ball went down, and rattling around the rim.
Strange, weird things. Hopefully Game 5 will be more normal. No competitiveness will hurt.
