After a bloodbath of a conference semifinal series with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Warriors got a breather on Wednesday. They rolled to a comfortable 112-87 win.
What they got from the Dallas Mavericks was not their best by any stretch.
They are a team capable of running anyone out of a building, as they showed with their Game 7 avalanche to put the Phoenix Suns in the category of “clear-cut fraud.”
As Klay Thompson pointed out, there was a lot of emotional wear for Dallas from that win, while the Warriors were able to sit on their hands for a few days.
But what was extrapolated from that Dallas victory may have been an overcorrection. The Mavericks are a team with one star player in Luka Doncic, who has as much a claim as the NBA’s best player as anyone.
His supporting cast is not bad. But it’s not exemplary either.
Dallas is full of solid shooting wings like Dorian Finney-Smith, Reggie Bullock, Maxi Kleber, Davis Bertans and a couple get-their-own-bucket capable guards in Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie.
When things click for them, there’s a very real potential to blow anyone out.
But Doncic doesn’t have a star-caliber partner. And they are not the defensive juggernaut Memphis is.
They’re not throwing bodies around the floor without fear or, in some cases, concern for others’ well-being. It’s a team with solid defensive wings in Finney-Smith, Bullock and a stellar bench option in Frank Ntilikina.
But that Memphis grit-and-grind, throw a shoulder in your chest physicality? Nah. That’s not Dallas.
At some level, the Mavericks’ ideology is based upon the volume shooting the Warriors popularized before the turn of the decade, but it is far closer to those Rockets teams than the Warriors.
Doncic runs a fair bit of slow isolation in the half court and Jason Kidd encourages getting the right matchup almost obsessively. It’s an offense that encourages launching.
It’s about taking 48 threes and being willing to miss all of them (Dallas made 11 on Wednesday, good for 22.9 percent). That devil-may-care openness towards brick-laying is as Rockets as it gets.
It’s very similar to watching a Harden-Paul offense.
But even making that comparison belies the reality that Dallas doesn’t have that other go-to bucket getter. It can be Jalen Brunson. It can be Spencer Dinwiddie.
But they’re not stars because they haven’t proven it time and time again. Brunson, 6’1″, also relies getting to the hoop in a way that the Warriors make exponentially more difficult than the Suns.
And to be clear, Doncic won’t be stifled to 6-of-15 shooting like he was on Wednesday, but given Dallas’ outsized lean on him, the Warriors might not care much if he drops 50 if his questionable supporting cast can’t get going.
Golden State is clearly the more physical team, and that’s coming from everyone, including Stephen Curry, who has become a legitimately good, intelligent defender. That showed up early.
While the Mavericks are a threat, the smarter money is on the team with three likely Hall of Famers, a stellar two-way player in Andrew Wiggins and a microwave scorer in Jordan Poole who is probably better than either of Brunson or Dinwiddie on the offensive end.
That’s without mentioning Kevon Looney, who is clearly the best big in this series, or Otto Porter Jr., who adds size, a bit of shooting touch and consistently does the right things in his minutes.
Where the Warriors are susceptible is turning the ball over and allowing the Mavericks to heat up from deep.
Golden State gave Dallas a concerning number of open looks from deep. Even if the Mavericks’ talent pool hierarchy is a decided tier below the Warriors’, they showed in the past couple of series that they are capable of and will get hot.
There were some bad turnovers on Wednesday, but the 15 team turnovers from Golden State were their fewest in seven games. They were so much more incisive in their passing and in pushing the pace, preventing the Mavericks from trapping Curry effectively as they are wont to do.
And while the Mavericks can launch, so can the Warriors, just with the more proven options.
Now, there were, and still are, concerns about the wear and tear of playing a seven-game series on an every other day schedule.
Golden State is the older team and came in rested while Dallas did not.
But there’s also the other side of being that veteran team. This Warriors team is built for the postseason. There is a very real, if not esoteric element of the Warriors needing to break down that old scar tissue.
Curry, Thompson and Green came into these playoffs having not truly played together in three years. With each game, the muscle memory comes back and the familiarity with that new cast increases.
It’s also evident that with Steve Kerr back on the sideline and directing traffic offensively, things were crisper.
You’d expect that given that Mike Brown — Kerr’s defensive specialist — said he basically had to take a crash course on the Warriors offense.
With Kerr back, the offense was as fluid in the half court as we have seen. That started, as it did in Game 6, with Looney sparking them.
He gives the Warriors a major physical presence on the boards and has sound defensive fundamentals and the capability to switch and handle screens effectively. He gave Doncic trouble and clogged the lanes for a Dallas team which didn’t show an ability to attack the interior.
Having him out there also necessitates Draymond Green getting more involved.
It sets up opportunities for Looney, especially after an offensive rebound, to set up in the low post as a facilitator, often to find a cutting Green. Green dives into more of those Andrew Wiggins slashing opportunities when Looney is out there.
When he is proactive offensively, even if it’s even feigning interest to shoot, it is a tremendous boon to the Warriors offense.
Wednesday was a reflection of what happens when this team is committed on both ends, gets Green involved offensively, and doesn’t turn the ball over at outrageous rates.
The Mavericks have good players. If their offense peaks, they can win this series. But the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock aren’t keeping Draymond Green or Steve Kerr up at night.
Dallas will probably go supernova at some point and take a game or two, maybe three. But those stars are bright and burn out fast.
The Warriors are more well-rounded, more talented and experienced in the ways that matter most. That’s why they should be expected to make a return to the NBA Finals.
