In the second game of a four game road trip, the Dallas Mavericks (35-36) will travel to Oakland to take on the defending champion Golden State Warriors (64-7) on Friday night.
Meeting on the second consecutive Friday night, the two teams have played three times so far this season with Golden State taking the last two after Dallas won the first matchup of the season back on December 30th when Steph Curry was unavailable for the Warriors.
On March 18th in Dallas, the Mavs fought hard but ultimately couldn’t contain the outside shooting of the Splash Brothers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. Dallas was led by a strong 24 point effort from Dirk Nowitzki, but the Warriors guard-duo combined for 70 points while making a ridiculous 16-27 three-point shots. The Warriors as a whole made 22 three point baskets on the night, one shy of tying the NBA record held by the 2009 Orlando Magic and 2013 Houston Rockets.
Last Friday’s loss to the Warriors was also when the Mavs lost forward Chandler Parsons for the season to apparent tear in his meniscus. Dallas was able to win Sunday’s matchup with the Blazers thanks to the masterful 40 point performance from Dirk Nowitzki, but weren’t so fortunate Wednesday night in Portland. In Parsons’ absence, veteran Charlie Villanueva has seen some time on the court after not playing any meaningful minutes in months. Against a faster Warriors team, expect him and David Lee to get more minutes than anyone like Salah Mejri or the recently demoted Zaza Pachulia.
Key to the Game: Play a Nearly Perfect Game
There’s no need to sugar-coat it: It would be a miracle if the Mavs won this game. It’s not so much anything wrong with the Mavs, it’s how incredible this Warriors team is. This is especially true when they’re at home in the noisy Oracle Arena. After beating the Clippers on Wednesday night, Golden State has now won 51 straight regular season home games. Crazy, right?
If the Mavs want to make this game anything resembling competitive, they’ll need try to defend the three-point shot much better than they did last Friday against the Warriors and they definitely cannot turn the ball over 17 times like they did in Portland Wednesday nights. Golden State’s lethal offense doesn’t need any extra chances to score. They’ll also need Wesley Matthews to have an offensive game like did in Portland on Wednesday, 22 points while shooting over 50% from the field. His perimeter defense will be absolutely vital as well.
Game Info
Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 CT and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest and heard on 103.3 KESN.
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