Sunday provided another Warriors game led by youth, with all the less than predictable ebbs and flows that come with that. Golden State had Stephen Curry to anchor them against a Luka Doncic-led Mavericks squad which had trouble getting out of its own way, except for when it mattered.
And when it did matter, the roles were reversed. Golden State went cold in calamitous, awe-inspiring fashion. A 21-point lead was blown, and it provided another embarrassment, this time in a 107-101 loss.
Curry vs. Doncic: One came through when it mattered
There was a palpable air of youthful recklessness that enveloped the contest. The Mavericks are innately young and catalyzed by Doncic, who was equal parts dominant and disastrous for most of the game.
Golden State leaned heavily on its own young core, with more than 60 combined minutes for Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Jordan Poole, plus a solid dose of Gary Payton II, Otto Porter and Nemanja Bjelica.
It was the chasm in incision between Curry and Doncic, and how that momentum echoed throughout their respective teams, that decided this.
But while Curry and Golden State owned most of that momentum, it was stolen unceremoniously by the Mavericks in the fourth quarter.
For three quarters, Curry was outstandingly efficient with the ball in his hands, creating regularly without getting himself into trouble with turnovers.
The Mavericks, meanwhile, were plagued by their sloppy play, turning the ball over 17 times to the Warriors’ eight entering that final quarter. Doncic alone was responsible for nine turnovers.
It was almost an internal battle Doncic was waging, with his outrageous, slow-mo scoring fighting his dumbfoundingly irresponsible attempts to complete impossible cross-court passes.
But in the end, Doncic and the Mavericks found their groove, while Curry’s Warriors imploded.
Dallas went on a 16-0 run that became a 32-8 run in the fourth, while Golden State missed 11-straight field goals going into the the final two minutes of the game. And when it entered a necessary foul situation, Doncic iced the game, going 11-for-12 from the line.
Meanwhile, Curry went 2-for-8 in the fourth, missing multiple threes and a stunning finger roll layup off the front rim in the final minute. It wasn’t entirely his fault; he wasn’t getting much, if any help, but he was uncharacteristically poor after a very impressive first three quarters. It was a brutal punctuation to a 27-point, 10-rebound performance.
Without anyone else to really carry the load at that point, the Warriors fell apart, chucking a seemingly endless barrage of bricked threes. Driving to the rim was not in their repertoire, and their misery ended, appropriately, with a five-second violation as the icing on their sad Sunday cake.
The trials and tribulations of youth
While there was the usual, mostly speculative fan chatter about whether the Warriors would make a move at the trade deadline, the likelihood for Golden State to add players always through the buyout market.
But Steve Kerr said pregame that he’s not expecting any movement there. This, it appears, is the squad.
And without Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, James Wiseman and an illness-ridden Klay Thompson, the Warriors were left with their rotational and young players needing to pick up the slack.
They didn’t happen in key moments.
It was not a banner day, in particular, for Jonathan Kuminga. He was all over the map, sometimes looking like the future All-Star he projects to be, and at others, appearing completely lost.
There was a particular point, when he whiffed, implausibly, on a two-handed dunk. It rattled out, and it felt like an omen of the unraveling that was to come.
He had some screwy turnovers, bizarre fouls, and generally head-scratching moments.
Moses Moody, his draft partner, looked more comfortable in taking the shot opportunities he’s sometimes shied away from early on. But he disappeared in his fifth start of the year, finishing with just 5 points in 25 minutes.
Jordan Poole had maybe the most bizarre, disappointing night, putting up the rare goose egg in the field goals made column. He was 0-for-7 on the night and 0-for-4 from three.
Without the veteran presences to calm them in key moments, this felt like a Warriors team that was too young and too unpredictable to close out a game they seemingly had won.
And their infatuation with the three-point ball bit them, as they went 11-for-39 from three (28.2 percent), eschewing some potentially easy opportunities in a fairly potent example of why the modern NBA can be a frustrating product.
Your identity can be to chuck, but at some point, a level of balance in how you take your shots has to be found, especially when no one is connecting.
Said Steve Kerr, after the game: “It’s a good lesson for us… We have to better under pressure at maintaining confidence.
It was a historic collapse for Golden State, their worst in about a decade and a half.
“It’s actually good to go through and feel it,” Kerr said. “This is what it’s like in the playoffs.”
At least Looney is fun, as the old (young) man in the gym
Amidst all the chaos that was Sunday’s late matinee, there was Kevin Looney, acting as a stabilizing force. He was cued in on his defensive assignments, which is typical, but it was his passing in the lane that facilitated so much of the Warriors’ offensive success early on and helped them jump out to the 21-point lead they eventually wasted.
His athletic limitations have always been obvious, but he filled such an important role as the old man in the YMCA who compensated for his lack of physicality with his very apparent mental acuity.
That is, again, talking about a 26-year-old. But Looney’s always played like one of those veterans who learns how to evolve after their positive corporeal qualities leave them.
He’s just gotten more in-tune with the rhythm of the game and reading situations over the years. It’s why he’ll almost never stuff a stat sheet, but remain quietly reliable.
On Sunday, he had 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting (but went 0-for-3 from the line) along with 10 rebounds, 3 steals, and facilitated to the tune of 5 assists. He led the team with a +15 plus-minus, and it was evident that the Warriors were at their best when he and Curry were in-sync as Curry assessed the floor, drove and found Looney, who frequently sank down from the high post and sent the ball to the open shooter.
He was the early key to the Warriors’ easy buckets, and the team got away from that in the second half.
On the whole, Sunday felt like an exercise in the perils of youthful keep-chucking mentality, especially when it’s without a substantial veteran presence to rein it back into the fundamentals of the game.
