The Golden State Warriors left their broom at the team hotel on Tuesday night because there was no sweeping the Dallas Mavericks.
Down 3-0 and facing elimination in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, the Mavericks held off the Warriors at home 119-109 to stay alive and extend the best-of-seven series to Game 5 tonight in San Francisco.
Dallas took an early lead and were up 28-24 at the end of the first quarter. They stretched it out to 62-47 at the half. Led by Luka Doncic, who it was announced this week was selected All-NBA First Team, Dallas dominated the third quarter and were up to start the fourth. The Warriors made a furious run and cut their deficit to only eight points, 110-102 with 3:23 remaining on a three-pointer by Warriors rookie Jonathan Kuminga, but the Mavericks kept enough separation to avoid getting swept.
“It was almost like an ego win,” said the Warriors’ Stephen Curry, who scored a team-high 20 points. “You come out and really have nothing to lose. So that confidence started early, and we really didn’t do nothing to slow it down.”
Doncic didn’t shoot well, only going 38% overall and just 27% on threes (3-11), but still posted a triple double with 30 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith added 23 and former Knick guard Reggie Bullock contributed 18, making 6-13 three-pointers.
“Everybody in that locker room felt like we had more basketball to play,” said Finney-Smith. “We just wanted to get the win.”
Before the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, whose father was assassinated in Lebanon in 1984 while serving as the president of American University in Beirut, gave an emotional plea for lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws after a school shooting on Tuesday left 19 students and two teachers dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.