A few nights ago, the Dallas Mavericks provided the Warriors the gift of home court advantage when they publicly desecrated the Phoenix Suns in a 33-point Game 7 blowout.
The Warriors reaped the early reward of that home court advantage on Wednesday night with their first Western Conference Finals win at Chase Center, beating the Mavericks in a resounding 112-87 victory.
Stephen Curry, the all-around player
There was a chuckle from Curry the other day when a reporter referred to him as a two-way player.
But that’s a fair assessment about Curry at this stage in his career. He’s playing excellent in multiple facets of the game, just perhaps not the way we’re accustomed to.
What’s crazy about him is that he still doesn’t look like himself. Every game, it seems like he comes out cold and doesn’t snap into shape until the second half.
His inexplicable free throw struggles continued, too, missing three in the first half. But the man is inevitable, and even if he has to chuck to get there, he’s almost always going get his points.
On Wednesday, he was all over the boards, too, pushing the pace and generally preventing the Mavericks from trapping him. He finished with 21 points (7-of-16, 3-of-9) with 12 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and a block.
The Mavs are a matchup-obsessed team, and generally speaking, the Warriors did a fantastic job of preventing them from getting comfortable defensively with pace in the full court and incisive, fluid passing in the half court. Defensively, everyone from the Warriors showed a capacity to switch and take on matchups to some measure of success.
The defensive effort Curry’s had to employ since Gary Payton II’s elbow injury may explain in part why he hasn’t always found his rhythm. He’s been immense defensively, and has to be, especially when he’s on the court at the same time as Jordan Poole.
There were multiple times, especially early, when Curry shut down a Jalen Brunson drive, or even stumped Luka Doncic for enough time to bring in some help defense.
Even if his shot isn’t falling with the regularity we’re used to, Curry’s still getting his points, and he’s facilitating, rebounding and defending at exceptional levels too.
The other guys
The early start to the game for Curry and Klay Thompson was nothing short of disastrous. Curry was way off and Thompson couldn’t even seem to hold onto the ball. They were a combined 1-for-10 to start.
But that didn’t matter much because of the support they received from just about everyone else.
Andrew Wiggins was massive in picking up the scoring load especially in the first half, but was probing and attacking the Dallas defense throughout. He tallied 19 points on a playoff career-high 17 field goal attempts, plus 5 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block.
Kevon Looney remained imperious early, when he really needed to be. He grabbed a pair of early offensive rebounds, the first of which led to a Draymond Green score and another one he tipped back in. He had 10 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a pair of blocks.
Otto Porter Jr. even hit some jumpers in his return from a brief injury stint, tallying 10 points (5-of-7) and 6 rebounds.
And then there was Jordan Poole, who went AWOL against the Memphis Grizzlies. He has struggled in the past against more physical teams with defensive-oriented, quick wings, but looked much more under control on Wednesday. He had 19 points (8-of-12), 2 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal off the bench.
That brings us to this last point.
Dallas’ major lack of physicality, and Draymond
It’s a little early to call the Mavericks soft. They beat Utah in six games while missing Luka Doncic for three games and have a won a Game 7. They are, at the very least, resilient.
But they did win those games against the Rudy Gobert, soft-as-Charmin Jazz and the currently-being-moved-to-Seattle Suns who folded like lawn chairs in historic fashion.
The Grizzlies would have slaughtered both of those teams.
They were clearly the most physical team in the Western Conference, and it’s why the Warriors had such a hard time putting them away even without Ja Morant. They were relentless and maybe the second-best defensive team in the league behind the Boston Celtics.
The Mavericks? They are not that.
After slogging through the meat grinder that was that Memphis series, the Warriors looked like they had their prayers answered against Dallas.
Even when the likes of Curry and Thompson — who was outstanding defensively and found his second-half shot to the tune of 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a couple blocks — struggled to score early, there was such a discernible advantage for the Warriors in terms of physicality and defensive presence.
Yes, the Mavericks missed a lot of open looks. At some point, they’ll connect on those and make the Warriors pay, but they are an objectively less talented team, so it’s not like you’re stunned to see the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber miss some shots, regardless of their solid shooting percentages.
Draymond Green set the tone with offensive involvement and defensive brilliance, with the likes of Thompson, Wiggins, Looney and even Curry supporting that effort.
He flexed on the Mavericks after a blocked 3-pointer and was crucially under control when he had the ball in his hands. While he was effective in multiple ways (10 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block), he had just one turnover, and looked far less impressed by what he was seeing from Dallas than what Memphis offered.